Kenya starts 42-day countdown after last Ebola patient discharged

Kenya's last Ebola patient left hospital on Wednesday, and authorities formally launched the 42-day countdown on Thursday, November 12, according to Reuters and Medafrica Times. The health ministry said no new infections had been recorded since October 19, and the final 11 contacts of confirmed cases finished quarantine on Wednesday. If no new cases appear, the countdown ends December 23.

Kenya recorded nine confirmed Ebola cases in October. The index case, a 40-year-old Kenyan who had been living in the DRC, entered Kenya through Uganda and died in Nairobi on October 5, Clinical Observer reported in October. The virus then spread to four family members and four health workers; the index patient and his mother died, and seven others recovered. All 135 identified contacts completed surveillance, and officials said the nine cases stayed within one transmission cluster with no community spread.

At the same briefing, authorities said Kenya remains open for trade, business, tourism and travel, and that movement and public gatherings were not restricted, Medafrica Times reported. They urged jurisdictions that had imposed travel and visa restrictions to review them. Nairobi also said it would not act as a quarantine zone for other countries or issue "Ebola-free" certificates, as those requirements are not supported by the International Health Regulations.

The wider regional outbreak is still growing. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 11,042 infections and 5,387 deaths have been recorded, and Saudi Arabia has indefinitely suspended visas for Kenya, NBC News reported. Travellers from Congo have carried the virus to Uganda and Nigeria. Kenya's Health Minister Aden Duale said the 42-day wait is twice the longest Ebola incubation period, ending December 23, but prevention measures would continue. Kenya tightened border controls at its main airport for passengers from ten countries reporting cases or bordering affected areas, using thermal screening and health declaration forms; citizens arriving from the DRC will undergo a 21-day quarantine, Reuters reported.

There is still no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain causing the outbreak in the DRC, which began in May, Clinical Observer reported in October. The outbreak is the second-largest on record and has reached four countries across the eastern, central and western regions of the continent, the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak in Africa, Reuters reported. The absence of new Kenyan infections does not by itself prove that transmission has stopped; the 42-day window is the formal measure, and undetected contacts would still pose a risk.