Kenya Discharges Last Ebola Patient, Starts Countdown to Ebola-Free Status

The update

Kenya has discharged its last remaining Ebola patient from a hospital in Nairobi, Health Minister Aden Duale announced on Wednesday. The discharge begins a 42-day countdown, with Kenya due to be declared Ebola-free on December 23 if no new cases appear. Kenya recorded nine confirmed cases after its first case on October 6, in a man who had returned from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Seven patients recovered and two died.

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Why it matters

All nine cases stayed within a single transmission cluster, with no community transmission recorded, and officials said all 135 contacts linked to the first patient were traced and monitored. The first patient passed the virus to four family members and four healthcare workers. The containment matters beyond Kenya because the same Bundibugyo-strain outbreak, centred in DR Congo, has infected more than 11,000 people, killed 5,387, and has also reached Uganda and Nigeria.

What to watch

Officials said prevention measures and border screening will continue until December 23. Watch whether any monitored contacts develop symptoms during the countdown, whether travel restrictions imposed after the outbreak, including Saudi Arabia’s suspension of visas announced on October 30, are lifted, and whether cases keep rising in DR Congo.

Sources

• aljazeera.com — confirms the discharge, the December 23 countdown, the nine linked cases and the regional spread.
• dw.com — confirms the discharge announcement, the 135 traced contacts and the absence of community transmission.

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