Kenya confirms four new Ebola cases, bringing total number to seven

Kenya confirmed four new cases of the Ebola Bundibugyo virus on Saturday, including three health workers who treated the country’s first patient, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to seven, the health ministry said.

The other new case is a male relative of the index patient, who died. The relative had been in quarantine since October 6, the ministry said in a statement.

The cases are the first known infections passed on inside Kenya, where the first patient arrived from Congo on October 3. But the ministry says it has traced and quarantined nearly all of his contacts and there is no evidence that the virus is spreading in the community.

The three health workers, two men and a woman aged 29, 35 and 32 respectively, managed the index case on October 3 and 4 and had been in quarantine since October 9, it said. All four new patients were already in quarantine when they developed symptoms and were diagnosed.

The second and third patients confirmed earlier are stable and responding well to supportive treatment, the ministry said. It said 128 of 130 listed contacts, or 98.5 per cent, had been traced and placed in quarantine, higher than the 85 per cent global benchmark it said was needed to break the chain of transmission.

Kenya’s cases are linked to the Ebola epidemic in Congo — the second-largest outbreak ever recorded, with more than 9,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

The first Kenyan case was a man who had been ill in Congo for about a month before travelling by road to Uganda and flying to Nairobi on October 3. He died on October 5. His arrival has raised concerns about screening at the Congo-Uganda border, which has been closed since May, and at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Efforts to trace the remaining two contacts were ongoing, the ministry said. “The risk to the general public remains low as there is no evidence of community transmission,” it said, adding that there were no restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings.