No Ebola, Marburg in Kenya

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) has ruled out Ebola and Marburg virus in blood samples taken from suspected patients in Trans Nzoia county.

Four people from Bwayi area of Kwanza constituency were quarantined on Tuesday over a suspected outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever that had many fearing of an Ebola outbreak.

It had been reported that the four were infected by suspected patients from neighboring Uganda who had arrived in the area on October 31 seeking treatment for “a strange disease” from a local herbalist.

According to Trans Nzoia County Medical Superintendent Emmanuel Wanjala, blood samples taken from the herbalist and her husband tested negative of the deadly diseases.

Wanjala says that seven more patients are under medical investigation, insisting that all precautions to contain a possible Marburg fever outbreak have been undertaken. The medical officer rues the ongoing nurses’ strike as a challenge in the whole process.

This comes even after World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert on the outbreak of the disease in Uganda, describing it as; “Marburg virus disease (MDV), formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever which is severe, often fatal illness in humans.”