Kenya confirms four more Ebola cases, bringing total to seven

Key points

• Kenya confirmed four more Ebola Bundibugyo cases, raising its total to seven.
• Three new cases are health workers who treated the first patient; the fourth is a relative.
• The outbreak is linked to the DRC epidemic, and no vaccine exists for this strain.

Kenya's Ministry of Health said four more patients have tested positive for the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, bringing the country's confirmed total to seven. The ministry announced the new cases in a statement on X on Saturday.

Three of the new patients are health workers who treated Kenya's first case, and the fourth is a relative of that patient, who died from the disease. The relative had been in quarantine since October 6, the ministry said.

Links to DRC outbreak

Kenya's cases are tied to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has recorded more than 9,000 cases and more than 4,300 deaths since it was officially detected in May. Kenya's first patient died on October 5 after being ill in the DRC for a month and flying to Nairobi on October 3. These are the first known infections passed on inside Kenya.

primary contact and a close relative of the first and second cases

— Kenya's Health Ministry

Contact tracing and screening

The ministry said 128 of the first patient's 130 contacts, or 98.5 percent, had been quarantined, above the global benchmark of 85 percent. It says there is no evidence the virus is spreading in the community. Kenya has strengthened screening and set up a hotline, though some observers have questioned how the first patient bypassed health screenings and contacted so many people.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with an infected person's bodily fluids or contaminated materials. The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccines or treatments, and research on vaccines is in early human testing.