A preliminary laboratory test on a sample from a 20-year-old man in Wajir County found no Ebola virus, the county governor said. The result eased concern about a second case after Kenya confirmed its first imported infection this week.
The man is being monitored in Wajir after travelling from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda. Kenya’s first confirmed patient, who later died in Nairobi, followed the same route. Reuters reported that samples from the suspected patient were sent to a laboratory in Nairobi.
The World Health Organization says Kenya’s health ministry confirmed the country’s first imported case of Bundibugyo virus disease on October 6. The patient travelled by road to Kampala before flying to Nairobi on October 3. WHO said contact tracing, including among passengers on the international flight, was under way.
Bundibugyo virus is one of the Ebola viruses. WHO says there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the disease. The governor described the negative result as preliminary, so it does not yet amount to a final ruling out of the suspected infection.