Last Ebola Patient In Kenya Discharged
Nairobi: Kenya has discharged its final recovered Ebola patient from medical care, triggering the official 42-day countdown to declare the nation free of the viral outbreak, the country's health minister said Wednesday.
The east African country recorded its first-ever case of Ebola on October 6 -- a Kenyan man who had travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in May and has since reported over 11,000 cases and 5,000 deaths. Kenya saw just nine cases and two deaths overall -- all linked to the first patient.
The last person undergoing treatment has been released along with 11 contact cases who had been kept in quarantine for 21 days, the health ministry said in a statement on X.
Health minister Aden Duale said Kenya would be declared Ebola-free on December 23 if there were no more cases.
"Through strengthened surveillance and contact tracing, all 135 contacts linked to the index case were successfully traced and monitored," the ministry said.
"All nine confirmed cases remained within a single transmission cluster, with no community transmission recorded," it added.
It said teams remained on high alert, with active surveillance in health facilities and communities, and screening at points of entry.
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