Health authorities confirm rise in Ebola cases

Kenya’s health authorities have confirmed an eighth Ebola case after a 49-year-old patient attendant tested positive.

Patrick Amoth, director-general for health in the Ministry of Health, confirmed the patient attendant is in isolation, adding that other patients are showing positive recovery.

Amoth added that 38 people were tested on Sunday, with one coming back positive for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

The eighth case is a 49-year-old man who developed fever, headache, and muscle pain, Amoth said during an interview.

The health official said the patient had been isolated as health officials prepared to begin treatment.

He said all seven previously confirmed patients had received monoclonal antibodies, adding that those who had undergone the treatment were responding well.

“All of them, I can confirm categorically, have received monoclonal antibodies,” he said.

There are no approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the Kenyan outbreak, although candidate products are being evaluated in clinical trials, according to the World Health Organisation.

The new case comes after the country announced four new Ebola cases on Saturday, including a close male relative of the country’s first patient and three health workers who attended to him while he was in hospital.

Amoth further allayed fears of community transmission, saying there was a low possibility that the quarantined persons transmitted the disease at community level.

According to the Ministry of Health, authorities have actively traced contacts and quarantined individuals exposed to confirmed cases.

As of Oct. 17, health officials had identified 130 contacts of the first patient and traced 128 of them, the Ministry of Health said.

Contact tracing for cases confirmed since then continues.

Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on Oct. 6. The index patient, a Kenyan man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), arrived in Nairobi on Oct. 3.

The patient died while undergoing treatment at a Nairobi hospital and was later accorded a safe and dignified burial at a public cemetery to minimize the risk of transmission.