Kenya’s first Ebola case, a patient who travelled for weeks by road and air through three countries without being detected until he arrived in Nairobi, has raised questions about border control and how to trace the virus across countries.
The patient, a Kenyan man, had been living in Congo for seven years and started feeling ill a month ago. He had traveled by road to Uganda, before boarding a flight to the Kenyan capital on Saturday. There, he tested positive for the Ebola virus in a hospital and died Monday.
The Africa CDC Director-General, Jean Kaseya, told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that all stakeholders need to ask themselves how one case could have driven and flown to so many places without anyone noticing.
“We need to ensure that at point of entry, we have a strong surveillance system in place,” he said.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.
Kenya has been boosting its border controls
Kenya’s Health Ministry has heightened surveillance at border entry points and created an Ebola hotline for citizens to report symptoms related to Ebola.
The country has also designated five health facilities with a total of 241 isolation beds to manage patients, and is working to increase this capacity.
The ministry said the country has enough supplies, including personal protective equipment, and has mobilized resources since the outbreak started in May in Congo.
The ministry added that it had designated a specific gate at the country’s main airport for passengers travelling from 10 countries located within the outbreak’s epicenter.
