Kenya confirms eighth Ebola case as regional outbreak spreads
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A medical worker controls the sanitisation point for travellers entering the Kenya immigration services from Uganda at a border post in Busia, Kenya.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NAIROBI - Kenya has confirmed one more Ebola case, bringing the total number of infections in the country to eight, Director-General for Health Patrick Amoth said on Oct 18.
“Today, 38 people were tested, and one tested positive for Ebola,” Amoth said in an interview on Kenya’s Citizen TV.
“He is a 49-year-old man who is not a healthcare worker. He developed fever, headache and muscle pain.”
Amoth said the new case was a patient attendant who cleaned utensils and linens, and he was probably exposed to Kenya’s first Ebola case, discovered earlier in October, in a man who travelled from Democratic Republic of Congo to Nairobi and died at a Nairobi hospital on October 5.
The latest case developed symptoms on Oct 17, was separated from other people in quarantine, and was tested for the virus with the result returning positive on Oct 18, a health ministry source said.
Kenya has been on heightened alert, as a major Ebola outbreak centred in Congo has spread across borders in the region.
Congo confirmed on Oct 18 that its outbreak had spread to an eighth province, North Ubangi, underscoring concerns about wider regional transmission. REUTERS