Kenya confirms eighth Ebola case as 49-year-old patient attendant tests positive

Kenya confirms eighth Ebola case as 49-year-old patient attendant tests positive - Director General of Health Patrick Amoth. (Photo: Ministry of Health)

Health Director-General Patrick Amoth says the 49-year-old patient attendant has been isolated as previously confirmed patients respond to treatment and a new shipment of medicine arrives from Rwanda.

Kenya has confirmed a new Ebola infection involving a 49-year-old patient attendant, raising the country's total number of positive cases to eight as health officials intensify efforts to contain the outbreak.

Director-General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth announced the latest case after 38 people were tested, saying the patient had developed fever, headache and muscle pain before testing positive for the virus.

“We tested 38 persons; one turned positive. Not a direct healthcare worker, a patient attendant,” Amoth said.

Speaking in an interview on Citizen TV on Sunday, Amoth 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 antibody,” he said.

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Amoth reported significant improvement in a 65-year-old woman, saying her vomiting and diarrhoea had stopped and she was feeding herself and moving about.

“The older mama is doing very well,” Amoth said, adding that another male patient was also showing signs of improvement.

He further said three staff members at the Nairobi isolation centre had received their medicine and were stable.

Amoth said a shipment of another medicine had arrived from Rwanda shortly before his briefing and would also be deployed in treating patients.

“We are cautiously optimistic that everything will turn out well,” he said, urging Kenyans to work together with health authorities to bring the outbreak to an end.

The latest case raises the reported number of infections from seven to eight, according to Amoth's update.

Kenya is responding to an outbreak of Bundibugyo virus disease, a rare strain of Ebola. Earlier Ministry of Health updates indicated that authorities were tracing contacts and placing people exposed to confirmed cases under quarantine.

As of October 17, health officials had reported identifying 130 contacts, of whom 128 had been traced and placed under quarantine. The Ministry had also said there was no evidence of community transmission and assessed the risk to the wider public as low at the time.