Kenya has recorded its first confirmed Ebola case, a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and arrived in Nairobi on Saturday, the health minister, Aden Duale, has said.
The patient has since died, and 28 contacts have been identified so far including family members and health workers, Duale told a press conference.
“I wish to assure the public not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease,” he added.
Kenya has previously never recorded an Ebola case and Kenyans reacted furiously to government plans earlier this year for the creation of an Ebola facility at Laikipia Air Base, about 125 miles from Nairobi.
DRC has been battling its largest-ever Ebola outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo species.
The outbreak was declared in mid-May but may have started months earlier and has so far resisted containment efforts, with the central African country recording more than 8,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths.
The outbreak spread to Uganda, which reported 20 cases and two deaths, but the World Health Organization declared Uganda free of the disease in August.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the body fluids of infected people, living or dead. It can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
