A Ugandan patient was on Tuesday put on quarantine in Trans-Nzoia County in the western part Kenya for suspected Marburg infection.
The man, had crossed into Kenya to seek medical attention when medical personnel isolated him upon suspecting he might be suffering from Marburg hemorrhagic fever, local website, the Daily Monitor reports.
Samples were taken from the man and sent to the Kenya Medical Research Institute for testing for confirmation. The tests were expected on Wednesday.
The Trans-Nzoia County director of Preventive and Promotive Health Services, Mr Gilbert Sowon, said that if the tests confirm Marburg infection, the county will be forced to enforce strict surveillance along the border with Uganda, where six cases have been reported in Kapchorwa District.
Two people have since died of the disease in Uganda’s Kween District since the infection was reported mid-last month, the report said.
The World Health Organisation, while confirming the outbreak in eastern Uganda, said it is aware of at least one fatality but hundreds of people may have been exposed to the virus at health facilities and at traditional burial ceremonies.
According to the report, the first case in the country was detected by the Ministry of Health on October 17, when a 50-year-old woman died at a health centre of fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea on October 11.
Laboratory tests at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe confirmed the cause of death as Marburg.
According to WHO, Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a severe and highly fatal disease caused by the Marburg virus from the Filoviridae family; the same family as the Ebola virus.
The disease is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected persons or wild animals, including monkeys and fruit bats.
