Kenya reported its first Ebola death on Tuesday, announcing that a Kenyan national who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo died at Nairobi Hospital after testing positive for the virus - a case authorities said was also the country's first confirmed Ebola infection.

A journey home through Uganda

The man had lived in Congo for the past seven years and fell ill roughly a month before his death. Health Minister Aden Duale said he was treated at several hospitals before travelling by road to Kampala, Uganda, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi, arriving on Saturday afternoon. Relatives later drove him in a private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where he was immediately isolated. Duale said the man tested positive for the Ebola virus there and died late Monday.

Tracing contacts, guarding borders

Duale said 28 contacts of the man, who returned on Saturday, had been identified, including family members and the health workers who cared for the patient. Another 23 passengers and four crew members who travelled on the same plane from Uganda were also being traced. The response reflects how Ebola spreads, through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen and with contaminated materials such as bedding and clothing.

Measures announced or under way include:

• •Border points have been placed on high alert, with authorities monitoring for possible additional cases
• •The identified contacts will remain in isolation for 21 days and be released after testing negative for the virus, health ministry director-general Dr. Patrick Amoth said
• •Kenya had tested 267 samples at five laboratories nationwide since May before this first case was detected, Duale said

A fourth country in a fast-moving outbreak

Kenya is the fourth country affected in the outbreak, which was declared in eastern DR Congo in mid-May - months after the virus had already been spreading in a remote part of the region. Government data record at least 8,400 cases and more than 4,000 deaths, making it the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history. Before this case, there had been no active cases outside Congo since Uganda declared its outbreak over in late August.

The wider picture:

• •Uganda has recorded 20 Ebola cases in the current outbreak and France one
• •Kenya had never previously had an Ebola outbreak, according to the Kenya Medical Research Institute
• •In Congo, the outbreak has spread to seven provinces, where conditions are difficult
• •Cases have slowed in Ituri province, the epicentre, but are spreading in emerging hot spots in North Kivu and South Kivu
• •Responders have faced attacks on health teams, misinformation about the virus, a failure by locals to report symptoms and rebel violence that has limited access to treatment centres

Outside support and warnings

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday commended the rapid identification, isolation and testing of the patient and said a high-level team had been dispatched to support Kenya. The country also hosts a United States-funded isolation centre where American citizens exposed to Ebola quarantine for 21 days before travelling back to the US. That facility has faced legal battles and deadly protests by locals who feared it was exposing them to the virus.

Stéphanie Hoffmann of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) described the scale of the response in a statement.

The World Health Organisation has warned the outbreak could surpass the deadliest in history, which erupted more than a decade ago and killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa.

The man will be buried within 24 hours in accordance with recommended public safety protocols. His identified contacts will remain in isolation for 21 days and be released only after testing negative for the virus.