Kenya confirms eighth Ebola case as Congo outbreak spreads
The new case is a 49-year-old man who was caring for a patient. The Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccine or treatment.
Kenya recorded its eighth Ebola case on Sunday, Oct. 18, according to the Health Ministry and Deutsche Welle. Of 38 people tested that day, one came back positive: a 49-year-old man who is not a health worker, with fever, headache and muscle pain.
The man was keeping a patient company and washing the patient's utensils and bedding. He was probably exposed to the country's first case, detected in early October. The other six living patients are stable on supportive care, and the first patient died on Oct. 5.
The count has risen since the earlier report of the third case, a 65-year-old woman. Africa CDC, the African Union's public health agency, reported four more infections: three health workers and a relative, all already in quarantine when they tested positive. The ministry says there is no evidence of community transmission for now, according to Africa CDC.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the outbreak is the deadliest in the country's history. DW, citing Congo's Health Ministry, counts at least 9,400 cases and more than 4,500 deaths since mid-May. The virus has now reached its eighth province, Nord-Ubangi, on the border with the Central African Republic, where there are two cases and one death.
Mohamed Yakub Janabi, the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, said that hot spots tend to subside but that the outbreak is spreading: "geographically it's spreading out."
The agent is the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Without those tools, containment depends on isolating the sick and tracing their contacts. As of Africa CDC's latest report, two contacts in the group identified in Kenya had not been located.
