What to know about Kenya’s first Ebola case and how officials are responding

NAIROBI, Kenya — 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.

The Kenyan man drove for hours by road within Congo and across the border into Uganda. He boarded a…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health