The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has overturned Covid-19 test results on a Kenyan long-distance truck driver who was tested positive in Uganda while on transit a fortnight ago.
According to Taita-Taveta health officials, the victim was tested at the Malaba border along the Kenya-Uganda border on May 3 while on his way to Tororo.
On his way back to Mombasa on May 7, Uganda authorities called and confirmed to him that he had tested positive. At the time he was being informed, he was near Maungu Township on his way to Mombasa City, said the health officials in the region.
The suspected coronavirus victim was later seized by the County Covid -19 Response team at Maungu Township and isolated at the Voi County Referral Hospital. The response team thereafter undertook a confirmatory test, activated the contact tracing process and other standard procedures.
However, due to the fact that the test report received from Uganda indicated a positive result, further confirmatory tests at the Kemri Laboratories in Kilifi County showed negative results.
However, the Executive Director of UVRI, Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, said on Thursday that scientifically, it is possible for someone to test positive and have a negative result afterwards.
“Positivity comes when viraemia, which is the presence of viruses in the blood goes up and that usually comes two or three days after infection. However, after 14 days the virus goes down, which however doesn’t mean that someone is negative until antibody tests prove so,” he said.
Prof Kaleebu added that the same patient had a positive result at the third round of testing in Kenya.
So far 63 patients have recovered from Covid-19 in Uganda. The country’s caseload stands at 160, with more than 100 cases recorded from truck drivers.
