Kenya's Ebola cases rise to seven as three health workers test positive

Kenya has confirmed four more cases of Ebola, taking the country’s total to seven, and for the first time the virus has been passed on inside Kenya. Three of the new patients are health workers who treated the country’s first case.

The Health Ministry said on Saturday that the three, two men and a woman aged 29, 35 and 32, had cared for the first patient on 3 and 4 October and had been in quarantine since 9 October. The fourth new case is a male relative of that patient, who had been in quarantine since 6 October. All four are in isolation and being treated. The second and third patients are stable.

“The risk to the general public remains low as there is no evidence of community transmission,” the ministry said. It said there were no restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings.

How it reached Nairobi

The first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan man, had been ill in Congo for about a month. He travelled by road to Uganda, flew into Nairobi on 3 October and died two days later.

Health officials have listed 130 of his contacts. 128 are in quarantine and two are still being traced. Kenya has stepped up screening, including at the Busia crossing on the Uganda border, and set up an emergency hotline.

The cases are tied to the epidemic in Congo, the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, with more than 9,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths. Kenya’s patients have the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Ebola spreads through direct contact with an infected person’s body fluids or with contaminated bedding and clothing.