KENYA CONFIRMS FIRST EBOLA CASE LINKED TO CONGO OUTBREAK

Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed the country's first case of Ebola linked to an outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Health Minister Aden Duale told reporters on Tuesday. A Kenyan citizen who had been living in the DRC arrived in Nairobi on Saturday and died at a Nairobi hospital on Monday night, according to Duale. He said the patient had fallen ill about a month earlier and had been treated at several hospitals in the DRC before travelling by road to Kampala, Uganda, and then flying on to Kenya. Duale said the patient was given supportive treatment but died. Kenya's health ministry said it was not clear how the man had been able to board a flight to Kenya while unwell.

The ministry said contact tracing was under way for 28 people, including members of the patient's family, along with healthcare workers and the 23 passengers and four crew members who had been on his flight. Kenya becomes the fourth country to confirm a case linked to the outbreak, which Duale's ministry says has killed more than 4,000 people and infected about 8,000 in the DRC. France reported one case in June involving a doctor who had travelled to the DRC on humanitarian work, according to the report. Uganda was declared Ebola-free in August after recording 20 cases, with no active cases reported outside the DRC since.

Duale had previously halted construction of a US-backed Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya after public protests, with Kenyan High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi blocking the project on 29 May. According to the report, the facility had been intended to quarantine only American citizens leaving the DRC. Kenyan health officials have not said what further steps they plan to take following the confirmed case.