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Kenya’s first H1N1 flu case confirmed

By Abdi Latif Dahir, Written for UPI
Published: June 30, 2009 at 3:22 PM

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 29 (UPI) -- Kenya’s Public Health and Sanitation Minister Beth Mugo confirmed the first case of H1N1 flu in Kenya.

Speaking at a news conference Monday, Mugo confirmed that a British national who jetted into the country last weekend from the United Kingdom was detected to have the virus.

Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported that confirmation tests were carried out in three laboratories: one operated by the Kenya Medical Research Institute, a second one by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a third one by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

The case comes after a false warning was issued during the weekend that a patient with the virus had been detected. The patient, a 20-year-old Kenyan woman, visited a private clinic in Nairobi displaying symptoms of H1N1 flu.

Test results proved negative for the virus.

Since the outbreak of the flu in early April, authorities at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport have begun screening passengers from the United State, Europe and Mexico where the first cases of the flu were confirmed.

South Africa last week became the first sub-Saharan African country to confirm a case of the flu, though the Ivory Coast, Cape Verde and Ethiopia have also reported cases.

World Health Organization figures indicated there have been more than 59,000 confirmed cases of swine flu and more than 260 deaths worldwide attributed to the disease.
The story above was selected for publication from work submitted to UPI’s new initiative for aspiring journalists, UPIU. Click here to learn more about UPIU.
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