The world's attention over the past few days has been focused on Russia, where the death of a lab worker in Siberia has prompted global concerns about pneumonic plague. But in Africa, deadly Ebola is crossing borders and triggering a contact-tracing scramble amid fears that the highly contagious virus is now spreading via air travel.
The patient, a Kenyan man, had been living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) – where the disease has killed more than 4000 people – for seven years. He started feeling ill a month ago. He travelled by road to Uganda, before boarding a flight – operated by the budget African airline Jambojet – to the Kenyan capital on Saturday. There, he tested positive for Ebola in a hospital; he died on Monday.
The short period between the flight and his death means the journey took place in the final days of infection, the stage at which patients who die of the disease are most contagious, London's Telegraph reported. Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and via contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. An aeroplane cabin can increase the risks because passengers share cramped spaces for prolonged periods and touch the same surfaces, such as in bathrooms.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director-general Jean Kaseya said all stakeholders needed to ask themselves how one case could have driven and flown to so many places without anyone noticing.