Marburg 'victim' declared virus-free

A huge sense of relief was felt yesterday after a Kenyan suspected to have contracted the deadly Marburg virus, a killer sister of Ebola, was found to be free of the disease.

Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia told The Standard yesterday that the Kenyan fell seriously ill after returning from Uganda, prompting suspicions he could have contracted the killer virus.

The suspicions were heightened when it emerged that the individual, whose name has not been made public, had come from the same hospital in Uganda where one person died from the deadly disease.

This prompted Health ministry officials to order the individual's immediate quarantine and samples taken from him to laboratories at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) for testing.

"We are very relieved that the first test confirmed he had no Maburg or Ebola. A second test has been conducted and we await the results," said Mr Macharia.

The Maburg virus scare arose after the disease killed one person in Uganda on Sunday, causing Ugandan government officials to scramble to contain it before it spread.

In response to the Marbug case in Uganda, the CS said the Government was training and dispatching more health personnel to the border points to strengthen screening of incoming travellers to reduce chances of either Marburg or Ebola coming into the country.

"We were already prepared for Ebola. This means we will also handle Marburg. But we will scale up the screening and monitoring process on all borders. There is no cause for alarm," he said.

DISEASE THREAT

He reassured citizens that the Marburg threat to Kenya was still very low considering only one person had died from it.

The health worker who died was from the busy Mengo Hospital in Kampala. He died 11 days after falling ill. He had a headache and abdominal pains. He also had diarrhoea and vomited blood before he died on September 28.

Ugandan officials have claimed things are under control but this assertion remains to be seen, with experts worrying about their capacity to manage the killer disease.

Dr Ahmed Kalebi, a consultant pathologist and lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said Marburg is like Ebola in many ways because it is transmitted through direct contact with blood, tissues or bodily fluids of an infected person or an infected primate or fruit bat.