Mirian Gom 
NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya has increased contact tracing after recording its first confirmed case and death from Bundibugyo virus disease, with the number of people linked to the patient rising to 57.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said 10 of the identified contacts had been placed in quarantine and were undergoing daily symptom monitoring as authorities intensified efforts to locate the others.
The development came as Kenya conducted its first safe and dignified burial of an Ebola patient on Wednesday at Lang’ata Cemetery in Nairobi.
Duale said the country was not experiencing an Ebola outbreak, stressing that the confirmed infection was imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “Of the initial 55 identified contacts, an additional two have been added, bringing the total number of contacts to 57. Ten of them have been accounted for, and they are already under a quarantine facility,” he said.
“They’re undergoing daily symptom monitoring at the National Police Service Hospital in Nairobi. Efforts today to trace the remaining contacts have been intensified,” Duale said.
The deceased was a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the DRC, where he fell ill before travelling by road through Uganda and later flying to Nairobi on October 3.
He was taken to hospital and isolated on arrival, with laboratory tests subsequently confirming Bundibugyo virus disease, a severe viral haemorrhagic fever caused by Bundibugyo virus.
The patient died on October 5 and was buried the following day under Kenya’s Ebola safe and dignified burial protocol, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Kenya has screened more than 652,000 travellers and tested 267 suspected samples since going on heightened alert, while about 5,000 health workers have received training on Ebola prevention and case management.
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Korede Abdullah 
