Kenya has confirmed four new cases of the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, bringing its total to seven, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on X on Saturday.
Three of the new patients are health workers who treated the country’s first patient. The fourth is a relative of that patient, who died of the disease. The relative had been in quarantine since October 6.The announcement comes a day after Kenya confirmed three cases. The patient identified on Friday was described as a primary contact and close relative of the first and second cases.
Kenya’s cases are linked to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has recorded more than 9,000 cases and over 4,300 deaths since it was officially detected in May.
The index patient fell ill in the DRC, spent a month there, and flew to Nairobi on October 3. The patient died on October 5. The cases are the first known infections passed on inside Kenya.
Of the first patient’s 130 contacts, 128, or 98.5 percent, have been quarantined. That is above the 85 percent global benchmark for breaking the chain of transmission. The ministry says there is no evidence of community spread.
Kenya has strengthened screening and set up a hotline for anyone who suspects contact with an Ebola patient. Some observers, however, have questioned how the index patient slipped past screening on arrival and met so many people.
