Kenya confirms four more Ebola cases, bringing total to seven

⁠Three health workers who ⁠treated the country’s first Ebola patient are among the latest confirmed cases.

A nurse is assisted by a colleague in donning personal protective equipment at an isolation facility for Ebola patients in Nairobi Hospital in Nairobi on October 7, 2026 [File: AFP]

The Kenyan government says four new patients have tested positive for the Ebola Bundibugyo virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the East African nation to seven.

Three of the new cases were among health workers who treated the country’s first patient, Kenya’s Ministry of Health said in a statement posted on X on Saturday.

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The fourth case is a relative of that same patient, who died from the disease, it added.

The relative had been in quarantine since October 6, the ministry said.

This comes a day after Kenya confirmed three cases in the country. The patient identified on Friday was a “primary contact and a close relative of the first and second cases”, the Health Ministry said.

Kenya’s cases are linked to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has recorded more than 9,000 cases and more than 4,300 deaths since it was officially detected in May.

Kenya’s index patient died on October 5 after being ill in the DRC for a month and then flying to Nairobi on October 3. The cases are the first known infections ⁠passed on inside Kenya.

Of the first patient’s 130 contacts, the Health Ministry said 128, or 98.5 percent, had been quarantined – above the global benchmark of 85 percent to break the chain of transmission.

The ministry says it has traced and quarantined nearly all of the first patient’s contacts and there is no evidence that the virus is spreading in the community.

Kenya has reacted quickly by strengthening screening and establishing a hotline for anyone who suspects they may have been in contact with an Ebola patient, but some observers have questioned how the index patient managed to bypass health screenings upon returning to Kenya and make contact with so many people.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, including blood and vomit, or through contact with contaminated materials and surfaces, such as bedding and clothing.

The dominant strain in this outbreak is the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are currently no vaccines or treatments. This has complicated efforts to control the spread of the disease.

Research is under way to develop one or more vaccines that work against the strain, and some of these vaccines are already in the early phases of testing in humans.

三名曾治疗该国首例埃博拉患者的医护人员也确诊感染了埃博拉病毒。

2026年10月7日，在内罗毕医院的埃博拉患者隔离设施中，一名护士在同事的帮助下穿戴个人防护装备。[图片：法新社]

肯尼亚政府表示，新增四名患者埃博拉邦迪布焦病毒检测呈阳性，使这个东非国家的确诊病例总数达到七例。

肯尼亚卫生部周六在X网站上发表声明称，新增病例中有三例是曾治疗该国首例患者的医护人员。

列表 1/3：为何肯尼亚一例埃博拉死亡病例引发了人们对埃博拉疫情在非洲更广泛传播的担忧？

刚果民主共和国埃博拉病例超过9000例，遏制病毒传播的努力受挫（列表2/3）

肯尼亚记录了第三例埃博拉病例，与首例死亡患者有关，该病例为3例中的第3例。

声明还补充说，第四例病例是同一名患者的亲属，他死于这种疾病。

该部表示，这名亲属自10月6日起就一直处于隔离状态。

此前一天，肯尼亚确诊了三例病例。卫生部表示，周五确诊的患者是“第一例和第二例病例的密切接触者和近亲”。

肯尼亚的病例与刚果民主共和国（刚果（金））的埃博拉疫情有关，自 5 月份正式发现以来，该国已记录了 9000 多例病例和 4300 多例死亡。

肯尼亚的首例新冠肺炎患者于10月5日去世，此前他在刚果民主共和国患病一个月，然后于10月3日飞往内罗毕。这些病例是肯尼亚境内首次发现的感染病例。

卫生部表示，在首例患者的 130 名密切接触者中，128 人（占 98.5%）已被隔离——高于全球 85% 的基准，以切断传播链。

卫生部表示，他们已经追踪并隔离了首例患者几乎所有的密切接触者，没有证据表明病毒正在社区传播。

肯尼亚迅速做出反应，加强了筛查，并设立了一条热线，供任何怀疑自己可能接触过埃博拉患者的人使用。但一些观察人士质疑，首例患者是如何在返回肯尼亚后绕过健康筛查并与这么多人接触的。

埃博拉病毒具有高度传染性，可通过直接接触感染者的体液（包括血液和呕吐物）或接触受污染的材料和表面（如床上用品和衣物）传播。

此次疫情的主要毒株是邦迪布焦毒株，目前尚无针对该毒株的疫苗或治疗方法。这使得控制疫情蔓延的工作变得更加复杂。

目前正在进行研究，以开发一种或多种针对该毒株的疫苗，其中一些疫苗已经进入人体试验的早期阶段。