- Kenyan health authorities are hunting for a Ugandan national connected to the country's first Ebola case, with his whereabouts still unknown
- Officials have identified the man by name and passport number, but have been unable to reach him on his South Sudanese phone number
- The missing man is one of 130 contacts identified by the Ministry of Health, with 129 now accounted for
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Amos Khaemba is a Current Affairs Editor at TUKO.co.ke, covering political and world news. Khaemba has over four years of journalism experience and joined TUKO.co.ke in 2022.
Kenyan health authorities are actively searching for a Ugandan national linked to the country's first Ebola fatality, a Kenyan man who died on October 5, as concerns grow over cross-border contact tracing.
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Director-General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth confirmed that the Ugandan man was one of two contacts who had not been located at the time of the Ministry of Health's October 17 update.
The second unaccounted contact has since been found and placed in quarantine at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.
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Search complicated by unknown travel route
Despite holding the man's name, passport details, and phone number, officials have been unable to establish his current location. He is operating on a South Sudanese telephone number, which has further hampered efforts to contact him.
"We know him (the Ugandan) by name and passport number and from his phone but we are not able to reach him," Dr Amoth told the Nation.
There is no record of the man passing through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport or any other Kenyan airport, leading officials to believe he may have left the country through unofficial means.
"We suspect either he travelled by road or used a panya route but we have communicated with Uganda," Dr Amoth said, referring to informal border crossings that bypass standard immigration controls.
Kenya's Ebola containment efforts
Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on October 6. The patient was a Kenyan man who had been residing in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He travelled from the DRC through Uganda, arriving in Nairobi on October 3, and died two days later on October 5.
The Ministry of Health has so far identified 130 contacts connected to the case. As of October 17, 128 had been traced and placed under quarantine. With the second previously missing contact now located, the total stands at 129, leaving the Ugandan national as the sole unaccounted individual.
Health officials have recorded eight Ebola cases in Kenya, including one death, as the country works to prevent further spread of the disease. The search for the missing contact remains ongoing, with Ugandan authorities having been notified to assist in locating him.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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