Kenya confirms 4 new Ebola cases, including 3 health workers, raising total to 7
Kenya confirmed four new Ebola cases Saturday, including three health workers who treated the country's first patient, bringing the total number of infections to seven, according to the Health Ministry, Anadolu Agency reports.
"The Ministry of Health confirms four new cases of Ebola (Bundibugyo Virus Disease). This brings the total number of confirmed cases to seven including the deceased first case," Health Director General Patrick Amoth said in a statement.
The new infections involve three medical workers, two men aged 29 and 35 and a woman aged 32, who attended to the first patient between Oct. 3 and 4.
The fourth patient is a male relative of the first person to die from the disease. He had been quarantined since Oct. 6, according to the ministry.
Amoth said all four patients developed fever while under quarantine and were immediately isolated, with laboratory tests confirming they had contracted the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.
The infections were confirmed by the National Virology Reference Laboratory and the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
The patients are receiving supportive treatment from trained health workers, with the ministry reporting that the second and third patients are stable and responding well to care.
Health authorities said detecting all four infections among people already in quarantine had helped reduce the risk of further transmission.
The ministry said 128 of the 130 identified contacts, representing 98.5%, had been traced and placed under quarantine, while efforts continued to locate the remaining two.
Amoth said there was no evidence of community transmission and maintained that the risk to the general public remained low.
The ministry is also monitoring four relatives who cared for the first patient during his hospital stay.
Despite the additional infections, Kenya has not imposed restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings, with authorities saying the country remains open for business.
The first confirmed patient had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo before traveling through Uganda and arriving in Nairobi on Oct. 3. He died two days later.
The infections have raised concerns about the potential spread of Ebola across East Africa, particularly given the movement of people between Kenya, Uganda and Congo.
Congo health authorities have reported more than 9,000 Ebola infections and over 4,000 deaths as of Oct. 14, making it the second-largest Ebola epidemic on record, according to figures attributed to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Health authorities across the region continue to monitor the risk of cross-border transmission as Kenya intensifies contact tracing and surveillance to contain the latest infections.
As reported earlier, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which began in May, is the fastest-growing on record, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).