Kenya confirms first Ebola case as man dies in Nairobi after return from Congo

Kenya has confirmed its first imported case of Ebola, a man who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for seven years and died in Nairobi after travelling home through Uganda. Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale announced the case on Tuesday, October 6, saying laboratory samples had tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.

According to the ministry, the man fell ill about a month ago in Congo, where he was treated at several hospitals. He then travelled by road to Kampala and boarded Jambojet flight 8523, which landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Saturday, October 3, at about 1.10 pm. He passed routine public-health screening at the airport and cleared immigration. A relative and a friend then drove him directly to Nairobi Hospital.

At the hospital he was isolated first in a separate room in the Accident and Emergency department and later moved to the East Wing isolation facility, built during the Covid-19 pandemic and equipped with intensive care and high-dependency capacity. He presented with fever, chills, intense fatigue, muscle pain, painful swallowing and bleeding under the skin at an injection site. Doctors, suspecting a viral haemorrhagic fever, collected samples that returned positive for Ebola.

Duale said the patient received supportive treatment but died on Monday night, October 5, at about 11.30 pm. Arrangements were being made for a safe and dignified burial under Ebola protocols. Health officials said contacts, including family members, health workers and fellow passengers, were being identified and would be monitored. International reports put the contacts under tracing at 28 people, alongside 23 passengers and four crew members from the flight, to be isolated and observed for 21 days.

The case connects Kenya directly to the large Bundibugyo outbreak in Congo. The World Health Organization had recorded 8,463 cases and 4,082 deaths in Congo as of October 2, in an outbreak for which there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for this strain. Kenya had never previously recorded an Ebola case.

Officials urged the public not to panic, saying containment systems had been activated. The harder question now travels with the contact lists: how a man ill for a month crossed three countries, passed an airport screen, and was identified only when a hospital in Nairobi read his symptoms and his travel history together.