Kenya has confirmed its eighth Ebola case, with health authorities reporting that a 49-year-old man tested positive for the virus after developing symptoms including fever, headaches and muscle pain.
Health Ministry Director Patrick Amoth disclosed the latest case during an interview with Citizen TV late on Sunday, October 18, according to the report published on October 19.
Amoth said 38 people were tested that day, with one returning a positive result. The man, a support staff member at a health facility who handled tasks including laundry, had been in quarantine since October 9.
He was likely exposed to the virus in the room used by Kenya’s first confirmed patient, Amoth said.
How the outbreak spread
Kenya reported its first Ebola case on October 6 involving a businessman in his 40s who had lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a major outbreak has been ongoing since May.
The man travelled to Kenya by road and air through Uganda and died on October 5, according to the report.
The other seven cases in Kenya involved relatives of the first patient or health workers who treated him. Amoth said they were in stable condition.
Kenyan health authorities said last week that they had identified 130 contacts linked to the outbreak. Of these, 128 had been traced and placed in quarantine.
Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 cases, almost all imported from the DRC, and two deaths before declaring the end of the outbreak within its borders in August.
In the DRC, the epidemic has surpassed 9,000 cases, including 4,381 deaths, according to Congolese health authorities.
Health officials continue to monitor contacts and isolate suspected cases as efforts to contain the outbreak continue across the region.
