{"id":62183,"date":"2026-10-06T14:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/kenya-confirms-first-case-of-ebola-bundibugyo-virus\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:47:16","slug":"kenya-confirms-first-case-of-ebola-bundibugyo-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/kenya-confirms-first-case-of-ebola-bundibugyo-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya confirms first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The current outbreak in DR Congo has been caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which is relatively rare, with no approved vaccine or treatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u200b\u200bThere are however four vaccines in development, with<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c8jn007gmpzo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\"> human trials for one of them launched in July.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Duale confirmed that the Kenyan national had tested positive for the Bundibugyo species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to the minister, the patient first travelled by road from DR Congo to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Duale said that after being taken to the Nairobi Hospital, the patient was transferred to an isolation facility that was built during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was there that the patient &#8220;developed fever, chills, intense fatigue and weakness, painful swallowing, muscle pain and bleeding under the skin&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Doctors suspected a viral haemorrhagic fever based on his symptoms and travel history and collected samples for testing. The sample tested positive for Ebola Bundibugyo virus,&#8221; Duale said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The patient died at 23:30 (20:30 GMT) on Monday and his burial is planned for later on Tuesday in line with public health safety protocols.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At least 28 contacts, including family members and healthcare workers, have been identified, while health authorities are tracing a further 23 passengers and four crew members who travelled on the same flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A senior health ministry official said the patient might have passed screening at the airport because the medication he was taking masked his symptoms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Kenya introduced tighter checks at airports and border posts after the outbreak was declared in DR Congo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The health minister urged Kenyans &#8220;not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He asked health workers to be &#8220;extra vigilant and maintain the highest infection prevention and control measures regardless of the condition being treated&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cqzrd7v1j163o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The current outbreak in DR Congo has been caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which is relatively rare, with no approved vaccine or treatment. \u200b\u200bThere are however four vaccines in development, with human trials for one of them launched in July. Duale confirmed that the Kenyan national had tested positive for the Bundibugyo species. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62185,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62183\/revisions\/62185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}