Preliminary Ebola Test for Kenyan Patient Comes Back Negative

A preliminary laboratory test for Ebola in a 20-year-old man being treated in Wajir County, Kenya, has returned negative, according to the Wajir County governor.

The governor said the result reduced fears that Kenya was facing a second Ebola case. The patient had travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda before arriving in Kenya.

In a statement, the governor said: “I am pleased to report that the preliminary laboratory results indicate that the sample is NEGATIVE for Ebola Virus Disease.”

Kenya’s first reported case

Kenya reported its first-ever Ebola case earlier in the week after a Kenyan citizen who became sick in the Democratic Republic of the Congo died in Nairobi. The patient who later died had travelled along the same route as the man being treated in Wajir County.

The latest test result is preliminary, and the available information does not establish a final diagnosis for the suspected patient.

Regional outbreak response

The Ebola outbreak in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed at least 4,205 people among more than 8,700 reported cases, according to the source report. The outbreak also spread across the border into Uganda, which recorded about 20 cases before being declared Ebola-free in July.

The strain involved in the latest spread was identified as Bundibugyo virus, also known as BDBV. No vaccine currently exists for that strain.

The World Health Organization is working with Kenyan authorities on contact tracing and on strengthening checks for travellers entering the country. Kenya’s first reported case had drawn scrutiny over the status of Ebola in Uganda and concerns about border screening, after the patient who died passed through multiple airport temperature checks.