Ebola in Kenya: a ninth case is confirmed, all in one known cluster

Note

Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed one additional case of Bundibugyo virus disease on Tuesday, October 20, bringing the country's total to nine. It says all nine cases belong to one known cluster and there is no evidence of transmission outside the group. Eight patients are stable and responding well to treatment, and 134 of 135 contacts have been traced and quarantined. According to reports by Kenyans.co.ke and Citizen TV that the ministry reshared on X, the ninth patient is a 24-year-old man, a close family member of the first case, who was already in quarantine.

Kenya's Ministry of Health had confirmed an eighth case of Bundibugyo virus disease on Sunday, October 18. Director General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth said 38 people were tested that day and one tested positive: a 49-year-old man who is not a health worker, who developed fever, headache and muscle pain.

Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed four new cases of Bundibugyo virus disease on Saturday, October 17, bringing the total at that point to seven confirmed Ebola cases, including one death. One new patient is a close male relative of the first case who had been in quarantine since October 6. The other three are health workers, two men and a woman aged 29, 35 and 32, who managed the first patient in hospital on October 3 and 4 and had been in quarantine since October 9. Director General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth said all four developed fever as their first symptom, were isolated at once, and tested positive at both the National Virology Reference Laboratory and the KEMRI laboratory. The second and third patients, close family members confirmed on October 14 and 16, are stable and responding to supportive care, the ministry says. Of 130 contacts identified, 128, or 98.5%, have been traced and quarantined, and teams are still looking for the last two. The ministry says there is no evidence of community transmission and the risk to the public remains low, but it warns that more cases among quarantined contacts are possible until their 21-day monitoring period ends. Kenya has placed no restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings, and WHO advises against closing borders or restricting trade.

Kenya's first case was a Kenyan man who had fallen ill in Congo about a month before. He travelled by road to Kampala, flew into Nairobi on Jambojet flight 8523 on October 3, and died in isolation; WHO gives October 5 as the date of death, and the ministry's October 7 statement gave October 6. Congo's outbreak, which he came from, is the second largest Ebola outbreak on record. Bundibugyo Ebola has no licensed vaccine or specific treatment yet, though trials are under way in Congo.

Nine cases, one cluster, one contact still not found. The net is holding, for now.