Kenya begins 42-day countdown to ebola-free status after last patient is discharged

What the report says

Kenya has started a 42-day waiting period before it can be formally declared free of Ebola, after health authorities said the country’s last patient was discharged from hospital and 11 people were released from quarantine. According to The Independent Uganda, the countdown began on Thursday, one day after the patient left care.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said Kenya could be declared free of Bundibugyo virus disease on 23 December if no further cases are detected. The 42-day window is based on twice the virus’s longest known incubation period, a standard public health measure used to confirm that transmission has stopped.

The report said Kenya confirmed its first case on 6 October. The patient, a Kenyan man, had traveled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda and arrived in Nairobi by air on 3 October. He later died in a Nairobi hospital. Contact tracing identified 135 close contacts in Kenya and abroad, and eight additional people later tested positive, including family members and health workers who had cared for him before Ebola was suspected. All were already in quarantine when they became ill, and authorities said the outbreak did not spread beyond that cluster.

The World Health Organisation praised the milestone but urged continued vigilance through surveillance, patient screening, stronger laboratory capacity and readiness among health workers. Duale said rapid-response teams would stay on alert and that survivors would continue to receive follow-up support.