Kenya has reported its ninth case of Ebola. Health officials say that all eight patients who survived are getting better.
The new case involves a 24-year-old man. He is a close relative of the first patient. He showed symptoms while in quarantine and tested positive on 19 October, according to the Kenyan Ministry of Health.
In a statement on its X account on Tuesday, Patrick Amoth, the Director-General for Health, said all nine cases are linked to one group. There is no sign of the virus spreading beyond this group.
The first patient in Kenya was a 40-year-old man. He traveled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through Uganda before arriving in Nairobi on 3 October. He died in a Nairobi hospital on 5 October.
The ministry mentioned that the eight surviving patients are stable and responding well to treatment. It also said that it received 500 doses of medicine to help treat confirmed patients.
Contact tracing is moving forward. Out of 135 identified contacts, 134 (99.3 percent) have been traced and are now in quarantine.
Contacts who entered quarantine on 6 October and do not show symptoms will finish their 21-day monitoring period and start going home from 25 October.
The ministry also shared that they have given out protective gear, diagnostic kits, and materials for collecting samples to areas at high risk. They set up a special lab at Kenyatta National Hospital to help with testing and to keep other lab services running smoothly.
Kenya has not placed any restrictions on travel, trade, or public gatherings. These cases are linked to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DRC. The Bundibugyo virus has caused thousands of infections and deaths there.
The WHO reported over 8,700 confirmed cases and more than 4,200 deaths in the DRC as of 6 October. The virus is still spreading in many health zones.
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