NAKURU, Kenya, Oct 22 -Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret has quarantined one person for Ebola Bundibugya monitoring as the country intensifies measures to stop further spread of the disease.
The hospital Chief Executive Officer, Dr Philip Kirwa said the person will be held in isolation for 21 days as she undergoes further tests to find out if she actually has the virus after which she would be discharged.
He said the woman was quarantined because she was in the same plane with the a confirmed Ebola patient who travelled from Uganda into the country through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“She has been in Kenya for three weeks but she has no symptoms, the earlier tests were negative, medics will conduct a final test tomorrow and if it remains negative, then she will be released to go home,” he said.
Kirwa was reacting to numerous reports in social media that the hospital has a patient on treatment for Ebola.
“I want to categorically state that we do not have a patient here being treated for Ebola, what we have is a person on quarantine for the purposes of protecting the public,” he said.
The medic said it was not correct to assume that the patient was suffering from Ebola as she was only being monitored during the incubation period.
Kenya has been on high alert since the latest Ebola break out was reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May and reported her (Kenya’s) first imported case on October 6.
The patient was screened at the airport and immediately take to Kenyatta National Hospital where he was confirmed to be infected with the Ebola Bundibugyo virus.
The patient, a 40 year old male Kenyan who later died while undergoing treatment had been working in the DRC for seven years.
According to the Director General of Medical Services, Dr. Patrick Amoth, the country has so far confirmed 9 cases of Ebola Bundibugyo strain.