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Ebola: 122 contacts of Kenya’s first patient have been listed and 108 are in quarantine. None has symptoms, and no second case has been found.
The Ministry of Health says 122 people who came into contact with Kenya's first Ebola patient have been listed and verified, and 108 of them, or 88.5 per cent, are in quarantine and being checked every day. None has developed symptoms.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale gave the figures on Sunday 11 October. He said tracing of the remaining contacts is continuing with help from international partners. Only one sample has tested positive in Kenya so far: that of the patient who died.
The numbers on Sunday
293 samples from 289 alerts have been tested. Only the first case was positive.
Five laboratories are testing, including mobile labs at the Lwakhaha and Busia border points. Results take 6 to 12 hours.
667,675 travellers have been screened at 26 points of entry, 2,345 of them in the 24 hours before the update.
241 isolation beds are ready in five hospitals in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa, including 50 intensive care beds at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
More than 4,000 health workers have been trained to manage Ebola.
The ministry says there are no restrictions on travel, trade, transport or public gatherings, and no lockdown. Airports, seaports and border posts are open, with extra health screening.
How the case reached Nairobi
The patient was a 40-year-old Kenyan businessman who lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He fell ill in September and was treated at several health facilities in Congo for close to a month. Ebola was not suspected, Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness at Africa CDC, told the Associated Press. He had a fever and a rash and was first treated for a suspected staphylococcal infection, which is caused by bacteria.
According to Africa CDC's account, he travelled from Buta to Kisangani by road, flew to Beni, crossed by road into Uganda and took a bus to Kampala. He then flew from Entebbe to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on a Jambojet flight on Saturday 3 October.
He passed the airport's thermal scanners. The ministry says medicine he had taken hid his fever. He went by private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where doctors isolated him. He died at about 11.30pm on Monday 5 October. Tests confirmed the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, the same one behind the outbreak in Congo, and the case was announced on Tuesday 6 October. He was buried the same day under public health rules.
What has changed since
From 7 October, travellers landing at JKIA from DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Central African Republic go through a separate entry point for screening.
A 20-year-old man in Habaswein, Wajir, who had travelled from Congo and fallen ill, tested negative in preliminary tests, Governor Ahmed Abdullahi said on Thursday 8 October.
The Health Ministry has stopped holding its own meetings and seminars in hotels until further notice, so that staff can concentrate on the response.
The Government says it will bring home any Kenyan in Congo who is confirmed to have Ebola, and will pay for treatment for those without insurance.
The number of listed contacts has grown through the week as tracing widened from family members to the passengers and crew on the flight and others. Quarantine lasts 21 days, the longest time the virus is known to take to show itself. Counting 21 days from the patient's death gives Monday 26 October. The ministry has not announced an end date.
The outbreak in DR Congo has been linked to more than 4,100 deaths, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control figures cited by Capital FM last week.
What it means for Kibra
Schools, markets, churches, mosques and matatus are running as normal. Nothing has been closed.
Ebola does not spread through the air. It spreads through direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of a person who is sick with it or has died from it.
Early signs are fever, tiredness, muscle pain, headache and a sore throat. Vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding can follow.
If you or someone in your house has come from DR Congo or Uganda in the last 21 days and feels unwell, call before you go to a clinic. The numbers are 719, which is free, and 0700 719 719, which also takes messages.
Do not forward voice notes or posts about "new cases" in Nairobi. As of Sunday there was one confirmed case in Kenya, and that patient has died.
Sources: Citizen Digital and (Health Ministry update of 11 October); (Africa CDC account of the journey); (Wajir test result); Capital FM via allAfrica (hotline numbers).
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
The Ministry of Health says 122 people who came into contact with Kenya’s first Ebola patient have been listed and verified, and 108 of them, or 88.5 per cent, are in quarantine and being checked every day. None has developed symptoms.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale gave the figures on Sunday 11 October. He said tracing of the remaining contacts is continuing with help from international partners. Only one sample has tested positive in Kenya so far: that of the patient who died.
The numbers on Sunday
293 samples from 289 alerts have been tested. Only the first case was positive.
Five laboratories are testing, including mobile labs at the Lwakhaha and Busia border points. Results take 6 to 12 hours.
667,675 travellers have been screened at 26 points of entry, 2,345 of them in the 24 hours before the update.
241 isolation beds are ready in five hospitals in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa, including 50 intensive care beds at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
More than 4,000 health workers have been trained to manage Ebola.
The ministry says there are no restrictions on travel, trade, transport or public gatherings, and no lockdown. Airports, seaports and border posts are open, with extra health screening.
How the case reached Nairobi
The patient was a 40-year-old Kenyan businessman who lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He fell ill in September and was treated at several health facilities in Congo for close to a month. Ebola was not suspected, Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness at Africa CDC, told the Associated Press. He had a fever and a rash and was first treated for a suspected staphylococcal infection, which is caused by bacteria.
According to Africa CDC’s account, he travelled from Buta to Kisangani by road, flew to Beni, crossed by road into Uganda and took a bus to Kampala. He then flew from Entebbe to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on a Jambojet flight on Saturday 3 October.
He passed the airport’s thermal scanners. The ministry says medicine he had taken hid his fever. He went by private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where doctors isolated him. He died at about 11.30pm on Monday 5 October. Tests confirmed the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, the same one behind the outbreak in Congo, and the case was announced on Tuesday 6 October. He was buried the same day under public health rules.
What has changed since
From 7 October, travellers landing at JKIA from DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Central African Republic go through a separate entry point for screening.
A 20-year-old man in Habaswein, Wajir, who had travelled from Congo and fallen ill, tested negative in preliminary tests, Governor Ahmed Abdullahi said on Thursday 8 October.
The Health Ministry has stopped holding its own meetings and seminars in hotels until further notice, so that staff can concentrate on the response.
The Government says it will bring home any Kenyan in Congo who is confirmed to have Ebola, and will pay for treatment for those without insurance.
The number of listed contacts has grown through the week as tracing widened from family members to the passengers and crew on the flight and others. Quarantine lasts 21 days, the longest time the virus is known to take to show itself. Counting 21 days from the patient’s death gives Monday 26 October. The ministry has not announced an end date.
The outbreak in DR Congo has been linked to more than 4,100 deaths, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control figures cited by Capital FM last week.
What it means for Kibra
Schools, markets, churches, mosques and matatus are running as normal. Nothing has been closed.
Ebola does not spread through the air. It spreads through direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of a person who is sick with it or has died from it.
Early signs are fever, tiredness, muscle pain, headache and a sore throat. Vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding can follow.
If you or someone in your house has come from DR Congo or Uganda in the last 21 days and feels unwell, call before you go to a clinic. The numbers are 719, which is free, and 0700 719 719, which also takes messages.
Do not forward voice notes or posts about “new cases” in Nairobi. As of Sunday there was one confirmed case in Kenya, and that patient has died.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
