Ebola: Kenya confirms eighth case as Congo outbreak spreads
The new patient is a quarantined person who had attended to the first case. In Congo, at least 4,000 people have died and the virus has reached an eighth province.
Symbolic image · Photo: Corporal Paul Shaw ABIPP / Wikimedia Commons, OGL v1.0 (cropped and resized)
Kenya confirmed an eighth Ebola case on Sunday, Health Ministry Director-General Patrick Amoth said. The newly infected person was in quarantine and had attended to the country's first patient – a man who travelled from Congo via Uganda and died on 5 October. Of 38 people tested, only one was positive; up to 128 contacts are in quarantine. Patients are receiving monoclonal antibody treatment and are 'responding very well', Amoth said.
In Congo, the outbreak has killed at least 4,000 people since May and is described as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. It has affected 66 health zones and reached an eighth province on Sunday, with Ituri remaining the epicentre. It is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. North Kivu province will ban people entering from Ituri for one week from Monday.
'We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it's spreading out,' said Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO regional director for Africa. Kenya has tightened border screening, and Tanzania has introduced 21-day monitoring for travellers from high-risk countries.