Kenya confirms four more Ebola cases, bringing total to seven

What the report says

Kenya has confirmed four additional Ebola Bundibugyo cases, raising the country’s total to seven, according to the Ministry of Health as reported by Al Jazeera. Three of the newly confirmed patients are health workers who cared for Kenya’s first Ebola patient, while the fourth is a relative of that patient. The relative had already been quarantined since October 6, the ministry said.

The latest infections come after Kenya reported three cases the previous day. Al Jazeera reported that those cases were linked to the same family cluster, and that Kenya’s first known patient died on October 5 after falling ill in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and later traveling to Nairobi on October 3. The newspaper said these are the first known infections to have been transmitted inside Kenya.

Health officials said nearly all of the first patient’s close contacts have been traced and quarantined, and they said there is no evidence of community spread so far. The ministry cited 128 of 130 contacts as quarantined. The country has also increased screening and set up a hotline for possible exposures.

The outbreak is significant because the Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or treatment currently in use, making containment more difficult. Al Jazeera also noted that Kenya’s cases are tied to a wider Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where thousands of cases and deaths have been recorded since the disease was identified there.