Overview
- Kenya announced on Tuesday that a Kenyan who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo traveled by road to Kampala and flew to Nairobi, was confirmed positive for Bundibugyo Ebola and died after being isolated in hospital.
- Health authorities have identified 28 close contacts, placed family members and health workers under monitoring, and are tracing 23 passengers and four crew from the Jambojet flight for 21 days of monitoring or quarantine where needed.
- Tests at Kenya’s National Virology Reference Laboratory and KEMRI confirmed the Bundibugyo strain, which currently has no licensed vaccine or specific antiviral treatment, so response centers on rapid detection, isolation, safe burial and contact tracing.
- Africa CDC, WHO and other partners have dispatched support teams and supplied diagnostic kits and protective equipment while Kenya expands isolation capacity and the president ordered a national security review of the response.
- The case follows a large, fast‑growing outbreak in the DRC with roughly 8,000–8,800 confirmed cases and more than 4,000 deaths, conditions that include conflict, displacement and high cross‑border movement that hamper containment and raise importation risk.