Kenyan authorities have confirmed an eighth case of Ebola in the country after a 49-year-old man tested positive for the virus, according to a health ministry official.
The latest patient reportedly developed symptoms including fever, high temperature, headaches and muscle pain, health ministry director Patrick Amoth said in an interview with Citizen TV late Sunday.
“Today we tested 38 persons, one turned positive,” Amoth said, adding that the man had been in quarantine since October 9.
According to the official, the man worked as support staff at a health facility, where his duties included handling laundry. He was likely exposed to the virus in the room where Kenya’s first Ebola patient had stayed.
Kenya reported its first Ebola case on October 6. The initial patient was a businessman in his forties who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has been battling a major outbreak since May.
The man travelled to Kenya by road and air through Uganda. He died on October 5.
The other seven cases recorded in Kenya have involved relatives of the first patient or healthcare workers who treated him. Amoth said all seven were in stable condition.
Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 cases, most of them imported from the DRC, and two deaths before declaring the end of the outbreak within its borders in August.
Last week, Kenyan health authorities said they had identified 130 people who had been in contact with confirmed cases. Of these, 128 had been traced and placed in quarantine as efforts to contain the spread of the virus continued.
Meanwhile, the Ebola epidemic in the DRC has exceeded 9,000 cases, with 4,381 deaths, according to Congolese health authorities.
Source: AFP
