Kenya confirms four new Ebola cases, including three health workers who treated its first patient

Kenya's Ministry of Health confirmed four new cases of Ebola on Saturday, Oct. 17, bringing the country's total to seven, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported. Three of the new patients are health workers who treated Kenya's first patient, the ministry said.

The fourth new case is a male relative of that first patient, who died. The relative had been in quarantine since Oct. 6, the ministry said.

Reuters and Al Jazeera described them as the first known infections passed on inside Kenya. All four had fever as their first symptom and tested positive at both the National Virology Reference Laboratory and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Director General for Health Patrick Amoth said, according to Kenya's state broadcaster KBC.

How the new cases were found

The three health workers, two men and a woman ages 29, 35 and 32, cared for the first patient on Oct. 3 and 4 and had been in quarantine since Oct. 9, according to the ministry's statement as reported by Reuters. All four new patients were already in quarantine when they developed symptoms and were diagnosed.

The ministry said 128 of the first patient's 130 listed contacts, or 98.5%, had been traced and quarantined. That is above the 85% benchmark it said is needed to break the chain of transmission. Efforts to find the last two contacts were continuing. Amoth cautioned that more cases among quarantined contacts are possible until their 21-day monitoring period ends, KBC reported.

"The risk to the general public remains low as there is no evidence of community transmission," the ministry said, adding that there were no restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings. The second and third patients, confirmed earlier, are stable and responding to supportive treatment, it said.

Where the outbreak came from

Kenya's first patient had been ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo for about a month before traveling by road to Uganda and flying to Nairobi on Oct. 3, Reuters reported. He died on Oct. 5.

His arrival raised concerns about screening at the Congo-Uganda border, which has been closed since May, and at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, according to Reuters. Some observers have asked how he got past health screening, Al Jazeera reported.

Kenya's cases are linked to Congo's outbreak, which has recorded more than 9,000 cases, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. Reuters puts deaths at more than 4,000 and Al Jazeera at more than 4,300. Reuters calls it the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

Why it matters

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Some candidate vaccines are in early human testing, Al Jazeera reported.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, such as blood or vomit, or with contaminated materials like bedding. Infections among the health workers who treated the first patient will put Kenya's infection-control measures under close watch in the coming days.