Kenya has confirmed four new Ebola cases, bringing its total to seven, including the country’s first patient, who died earlier this month.
The health ministry said on Saturday that the new cases involved a close male relative of the first patient and three healthcare workers who treated him.
All four developed fevers while in quarantine and were immediately isolated before testing positive, the ministry said.
The relative had been quarantined since October 6. The healthcare workers, two men aged 29 and 35 and a 32-year-old woman, had been in quarantine since October 9.
The ministry said “the risk to the general public remains low”, adding that there was “no evidence of community transmission”.
Of 130 identified contacts, 128 had been traced and placed in quarantine, it added.
On Friday, authorities confirmed an infection in a 65-year-old female relative of the first patient. Another relative, a 39-year-old man, tested positive two days earlier.
First reported cases
Kenya had never recorded an Ebola case before October 6, when authorities reported the death of a Kenyan man who had returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The patient, described as a 40-year-old businessman, fell ill around a month ago and received treatment in the DRC before travelling overland to the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
He flew to Nairobi on October 3 and died on October 5 after receiving treatment.
Kenya has strengthened screening and established an emergency hotline for anyone who suspects they may have been in contact with an Ebola patient or develops symptoms.
The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in May. Congolese health authorities have since reported 9,066 infections and 4,381 deaths linked to the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment.
Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 infections, almost all among people who had travelled from the DRC, and two deaths before being declared Ebola-free in August.
Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
