A relative of the man who brought Ebola into Kenya has now tested positive himself. The 39-year-old fell ill on Tuesday with fever, fatigue and aching joints – but he was already in quarantine, which health officials say is exactly where they wanted any new case to surface.
That detail matters. Catching the infection early gives the patient a better chance of survival and makes onward transmission far less likely, the ministry in Nairobi said on Wednesday. It insists both cases are linked, sees no evidence of community spread and stresses that the country “remains open”, with no limits on trips, business or large events.
The tracing effort behind that reassurance is considerable. The first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan who died in Nairobi on 5 October, had met 128 people before he was isolated. Officials have reached 113 of them; 108 are in quarantine and 15 have yet to be found. With an incubation period of up to three weeks, the coming days will tell whether the chain has been broken.
Missed chances along the way
His journey has become a case study in how screening can fail. According to Africa CDC, he first felt unwell in DR Congo in mid-September, visited several clinics there, then travelled through Uganda and flew to Kenya without being flagged by airport temperature checks. Uganda, which the WHO certified free of the virus in August, has bristled at any suggestion it shares the blame.
The wider picture is grim. Congo’s epidemic, under way since May, has now claimed upwards of 4,000 lives, making it the second deadliest on record. The culprit is Bundibugyo, an unusual variant that doctors still cannot vaccinate against or treat with licensed drugs, although trials are running. Three other nations have already seen infections linked to it; Kenya makes four.
