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Kenya, in East Africa, confirmed four new Ebola cases on Saturday, including three health workers who treated the country’s first patient, raising the total number of infections to seven, according to the Health Ministry.
“The Ministry of Health confirms four new cases of Ebola (Bundibugyo Virus Disease). This brings the total number of confirmed cases to seven, including the deceased first case,” Health Director General Patrick Amoth said in a statement.
The three medical workers are two men, aged 29 and 35, and a woman, aged 32. They attended to the first patient between Oct. 3 and 4.
The fourth patient is a male relative of the first person to die from the disease and had been in quarantine since Oct. 6, the ministry said.
Amoth said all four patients developed fever while in quarantine and were isolated immediately. Laboratory tests confirmed they had contracted the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.
The National Virology Reference Laboratory and the Kenya Medical Research Institute confirmed the infections.
The patients are receiving supportive treatment from trained health workers. The ministry said the second and third patients are stable and responding well to care.
Health authorities said detecting all four infections among people already in quarantine helped reduce the risk of further transmission.
The ministry said it has traced and placed 128 of the 130 identified contacts, or 98.5%, under quarantine, while efforts continue to locate the remaining two. It is also monitoring four relatives who cared for the first patient during his hospital stay.
Amoth said there is no evidence of community transmission and that the risk to the general public remains low. Authorities said Kenya has not imposed restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings.
The first confirmed patient had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo before traveling through Uganda and arriving in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, on Oct. 3. He died two days later.
The infections have raised concerns about the potential spread of Ebola across East Africa, given the movement of people between Kenya, Uganda and Congo.
Congo has reported more than 9,000 Ebola infections and over 4,000 deaths as of Oct. 14, making it the second-largest Ebola epidemic on record, according to figures attributed to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Health authorities across the region continue to monitor the risk of cross-border transmission as Kenya intensifies contact tracing and surveillance to contain the latest infections.
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