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3w ago

Kenya Confirms Eighth Ebola Case After Patient Attendant Tests Positive

Health officials view the case as hospital transmission from an imported Bundibugyo infection requiring stronger border screening

People disinfect their hands as a Kenyan health worker checks the temperatures of travelers crossing from Uganda to Kenya as part of measures to contain the spread of Ebola virus, in Busia, Kenya, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
A medical worker controls the sanitization point for travellers to wash their hands before entering the Kenya immigration services to access port health services at the Busia One Stop Border Post, crossing-point between Kenya and Uganda, after a man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo travelled and died of a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo species at the Nairobi Hospital, in Busia, Kenya October 8, 2026. REUTERS/James Keyi/File Photo
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Overview

  • The Ministry of Health said the eighth confirmed case is a 49-year-old patient attendant who cared for the country’s first Ebola patient.
  • Three health workers and several close relatives of the index patient have also tested positive, and the newly diagnosed people were identified while in quarantine and immediately isolated.
  • Authorities identified roughly 130 contacts and have traced and quarantined 128 of them, and officials say there is no evidence of community transmission and the risk to the general public remains low.
  • The initial infected traveler had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo and passed through Uganda before arriving in Nairobi, exposing gaps in point-of-entry screening and prompting tightened airport checks, a designated arrival gate for high-risk flights, and an emergency hotline.
  • Public health partners are supplying tests, protective gear and technical support as Kenya responds to imported cases that mirror the larger Bundibugyo outbreak in the DRC, which has no licensed vaccine and is driving regional trial planning and heightened surveillance.