Kenya’s last Ebola patient leaves hospital as country awaits clearance
Final patient discharged
Health Minister Aden Duale said Wednesday that Kenya had discharged its last remaining Ebola patient from a hospital in Nairobi. The person was the final patient in the country to receive treatment for the disease.
Kenya awaits Ebola-free status
Kenya can be declared Ebola-free on December 23 if no one else develops symptoms before then. The country has reported nine confirmed cases since its first case on October 6.
The health ministry said all 135 contacts linked to the index case were traced and monitored through surveillance and contact tracing. It added that the nine confirmed cases belonged to one transmission cluster, with no community transmission recorded. The first case involved a Kenyan man who had recently returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Regional outbreak remains severe
On Wednesday, the Democratic Republic of Congo reported 11,000 cases in its current outbreak, which began in May. The outbreak has become the country’s deadliest, with 5,387 deaths reported so far.
Nigeria has also reported one case, involving a patient who had recently travelled from Uganda. Uganda had experienced a small cluster of the disease.
Key points
- Kenya discharged its last Ebola patient from a Nairobi hospital.
- The country reported nine confirmed cases, all in one transmission cluster.
- Eleven contacts of the final patient will undergo 21 days of quarantine.
- Congo’s current outbreak has caused 5,387 deaths, according to the report.