Kenya on high alert after four are put in isolation amid Ebola suspicion

Three other people have been put in the isolation ward at Kenya’s Kericho Referral Hospital after a woman was Sunday admitted with Ebola-like symptoms. The husband of the woman who was admitted on Sunday night and two others who assisted him to take her to hospital have been placed in isolation even though they had not shown signs of the disease, according to Nation. We have taken precautionary measures as a result of the reported case, by placing the three in isolation as the matter is being handled the paper quotes Dr Shadrack Mutai, the County Executive in charge of Health services, as saying. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also dispatched experts to Kericho who are already helping with investigations of the case. Results from Kenya Medical Research Services (Kemri), which is testing blood samples from the woman, are expected to be ready within the next 12 to 24 hours. “Very unpredictable” outbreak Kenya has never recorded an Ebola case before. The woman had returned from Malabo, a town close to the Ugandan border. The development follows last week’s confirmation that Ebola had spread from DR Congo to Uganda where two people have since died from the virus. DR Congo has been battling the epidemic for about a year now and an expert committee of the World Health Organization on Friday said Congo’s Ebola outbreak was an “extraordinary event” of deep concern but does not yet merit being declared a global emergency. Speaking in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, World Health Organization boss Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted by Washington Post as saying Monday that he accepted the decision. “From our side, I would like to pledge that we will continue mobilising global and regional support to control this outbreak as soon as possible. It is not clean until the outbreak in (Congo) is finished,” he said, according to a statement from Uganda’s health ministry. The spread of Ebola in eastern Congo has been “very unpredictable, with up and down trends,” he said. Rwanda last week announced it had stepped up border monitoring and preparedness following news of Ebola outbreak in Uganda and urged members of the public to take precautionary measures.

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Kenya on high alert after four are put in isolation amid Ebola suspicion