Kenya on Ebola alert

Ebola is known to kill in up to 90% of cases

Kenya has been placed on a high alert for the deadly Ebola virus which has claimed at least 43 lives in neighbouring Uganda.

A health team has been rushed to the Kenya-Uganda border town of Busia to screen incoming travellers, as the disease takes its toll in and around Gulu in northern Uganda.

A task force comprising health officials, members of the World Health Organisation, the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Immigration department was set up on Monday to deal with any possible outbreak.

Suspected victims have been quarantined

But so far no cases of Ebola have been reported in Kenya since the outbreak was reported nearly a week ago.

Ebola which is characterised by high fever, muscle pain and massive haemorrhaging spreads rapidly and can kill within 24 hours.

According to WHO statistics, the disease has killed 793 of its 1,100 known cases.

Surveillance

The Daily Nation newspaper quoted health minister professor Sam Ongeri telling the public not panic and to seek immediate medical attention if they suffer any of the symptoms.

Rise of Ebola

1976 117 die in Sudan, 280 in DR Congo

1979 22 die in Sudan

1994-95 244 die in DR Congo

1994, 95, 96 cases reported in Gabon

17 October 2000, 43 die in Uganda

The paper quoted the minister saying more health workers were to be trained and despatched to the border with Uganda to beef up surveillance.

The Kenyan Government carried out checks at other entry points along the common border and closely monitored pastoralists moving with their herds into and from Uganda.

Travellers who had earlier visited the affected area were required to give details of their itinerary, stating where they had visited and their destinations in Kenya.

Bus companies operating between the countries have been asked to report any illness among passengers before they are allowed to cross the border.

Speculation

Rwanda and Tanzania have also increased health checks at border points.

This is the first recorded Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and medical officials say they do not yet know how the disease reached the region.

There has been speculation that the virus could have come from Ugandan soldiers recently returning from the DR Congo.

The Ebola virus was first identified in southern Sudan and neighbouring DR Congo in 1976 after epidemics in Yambuku and Nzara.

Outbreaks of the disease were also reported in Gabon nearly four years ago.

The most recent epidemic was in 1995 when the disease killed 244 in Kikwit, DR Congo.