NAIROBI, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya confirmed a second case of the Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which is linked to the first case, with no evidence of wider community transmission, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
"Kenya has now recorded two confirmed cases and one death," said Patrick Amoth, director-general for health in Kenya's Ministry of Health.
The patient, a 39-year-old male, is a close family contact of the index patient and was already undergoing mandatory quarantine and daily medical surveillance when he presented with symptoms on Tuesday, health officials said.
After he developed a fever, fatigue and joint pain, the quarantine response team isolated him and collected clinical specimens for laboratory testing.
According to the Ministry of Health, diagnostic evaluations returned matching positive results from both the National Virology Reference Laboratory and the Kenya Medical Research Institute-CDC facility, confirming the infection.
"He is now in a designated treatment center where trained teams are giving him supportive care. Because he was already in quarantine, his illness was detected early," the ministry said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
"Early supportive care improves his chances of recovery, and isolating him at the first symptom limits the chance of passing the virus to others. This is the response working as designed," it added.
The latest case comes after Kenya confirmed on Oct. 6 its first case of Ebola linked to the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The index case, a Kenyan citizen who had resided in the DRC for seven years, recently returned to the country via regional transit routes.
The World Health Organization said the individual had sought medical evaluation at healthcare facilities in the DRC before traveling by road on Oct. 2 through Beni to Kampala, Uganda.
On Oct. 3, he boarded a commercial flight operated by Jambojet to Nairobi, where he initially underwent standard health screening upon arrival at the airport. He was then transported by a family member to Nairobi Hospital, where attending medical personnel immediately placed him in isolation.
Despite receiving supportive care, the patient died on Oct. 5 and was buried the following day in accordance with the country's safe and dignified burial protocols for viral hemorrhagic fevers.
