Kenya confirms first case of H1N1 flu

The first case of H1N1 (swine) flu in Kenya has been confirmed.

Kenya’s minister for Public Health and Sanitation Mrs Beth Mugo held a press conference Monday morning in Nairobi to confirm the case. The new case is different from a false suspect which had been reported last week in Nairobi.

The confirmed case involves a man, a British national, who had jetted into the country from the UK over the weekend.

A strain of the lethal virus was detected in samples taken from the UK student, who is part of a group that is in Kisumu in Western Kenya for a medical camp. The student had travelled from Nairobi to the lakeside city in a bus with fellow students

Nyanza Provincial Director of Public Health Dr Jackson Kioko confirmed that the samples had tested positive for the virus.

Confirmatory tests had been carried out at three different laboratories at the institution as per World Health Organisation guidelines.

The three labs include that operated by Kemri itself, a second one run by the US Centres for disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a third one operated by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research also of the US. All the three are hosted at the Kemri headquarters in Nairobi.

Dr Kioko, however, added that only mild strains of the virus had been found out.

“It is not a serious case and there is no cause for panic,” he said.

He added that the student had presented symptoms of the disease on Saturday night.

Samples were taken on Sunday morning and by evening, they had been confirmed as positive.

On Monday, the public health officials isolated the student in a hotel room as arrangements were made to transfer him to a hospital.

Dr Kioko said that it was necessary to isolate the infected student to minimise contact with other people.

Though Dr Kioko insisted that only one student had tested positive, sources indicated that another student was under close watch.