Kenya has discharged five Ebola patients who tested negative for the virus and showed no symptoms, the Ministry of Health announced Tuesday. This development leaves only two patients currently receiving supportive care, signaling growing optimism about the country's efforts to contain the outbreak. No new infections have been reported.
In addition to the discharged patients, 46 individuals identified as contacts of the initial Ebola case have also been released from quarantine. These contacts had been monitored for the standard 21-day period. A further 20 contacts were released the previous week, with the remaining 52 expected to complete their quarantine and be discharged next week.
The outbreak, which originated in the Congo in May, has been one of the most severe on record, with over 10,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths attributed to it.
Kenya recorded its first case of Ebola on October 6. The patient was a man who had traveled from Congo via Uganda and tested positive shortly after arriving in Nairobi. He died hours later at Nairobi Hospital.
Health authorities traced 135 contacts linked to this first patient. Of those, eight subsequently tested positive for Ebola, and one of them died, bringing the total number of fatalities in Kenya to two.
Despite the recent positive developments and no new infections in the past two weeks, the Ministry of Health stated that the country remains on high alert. Officials urged the public to stay vigilant, emphasizing that the outbreak will not be officially declared over until the required 42-day observation period, calculated from the recovery of the last patient, is completed.