Ugandan health authorities have stepped up surveillance and border screening after Kenyan authorities confirmed that a Kenyan national who died from Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease had travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Kampala before entering Kenya.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health said the country remains safe but is maintaining heightened surveillance and response measures following the confirmation of the imported case in Kenya.
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Aden Duale, said on Tuesday that the patient, a Kenyan national who had been living in the DRC for the past seven years, died on Monday after developing complications associated with Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease.
According to Duale’s statement, the deceased had fallen ill about a month before travelling from the DRC to Kampala by road. From Kampala, he boarded a flight to Nairobi, where he was taken directly from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to hospital and placed in isolation.
Kenyan health authorities said the patient presented with fever, chills, severe fatigue and weakness, muscle pain, painful swallowing, a sore throat and bleeding under the skin at injection sites. Laboratory tests conducted by Kenya’s National Virology Reference Laboratory and another laboratory subsequently confirmed Ebola Bundibugyo virus infection.
The case has raised concern in Uganda because the patient passed through Kampala after leaving the DRC, where Uganda has previously recorded Ebola cases linked to cross-border movement.
However, Allan Ssempebwa, the Senior Public Relations Officer at Uganda’s Ministry of Health, said there was no immediate cause for alarm, adding that health teams were continuing to implement border protection measures and investigate the circumstances surrounding the case.
Ssempebwa said Uganda’s border surveillance teams remained active and that authorities would provide further information if investigations established any additional risk to the country. He said the ongoing measures were intended to detect and prevent the possible importation of Ebola cases into Uganda.
It was not immediately clear whether the deceased had undergone Uganda’s mandatory screening and other health measures after entering the country from the DRC.
Uganda was declared free of its most recent Ebola outbreak after completing the World Health Organisation’s required 42-day period without recording a new case. All previous outbreaks included cases linked to cross-border movement from the DRC.
Following the outbreak, Uganda has maintained stringent measures at its border with the DRC. Movement has been restricted to authorised humanitarian, health, cargo and security operations, while travellers from the DRC have been subjected to screening and a mandatory 21-day self-quarantine.
Ugandan health officials have not yet confirmed whether any contacts linked to the latest Kenyan case have been identified in Uganda.
Dr Henry Kyobe, the Incident Commander for public health emergencies at the Ministry of Health, who is currently in Beni in North Kivu, DRC, referred questions on possible contacts in Uganda to the ministry’s public relations office.
Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities have identified 28 contacts of the deceased, including family members and health workers who attended to him. They are also tracing 23 passengers and crew members who travelled on the same flight as the deceased from Kampala to Nairobi.
Ebola is a severe viral disease that can cause fever, weakness, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, bleeding and, in severe cases, death. Transmission can occur through direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person or someone who has died from the disease.
The latest development comes as the DRC continues to manage Ebola cases. As of Tuesday, the country had recorded 8,442 confirmed cases, with 4,080 deaths attributed to complications of the disease, according to the figures cited by the authorities.
Ugandan health authorities are continuing surveillance at points of entry and say the ongoing measures are aimed at detecting any suspected case early and preventing further transmission should the virus cross into the country-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
