Kenya discharges last Ebola patient, starts 42-day countdown

Kenya discharged its last Ebola patient on Wednesday, 11 November, and began a 42-day countdown after which the country can be declared free of the virus if no new cases are confirmed.

Seven patients have recovered, four of them health workers, according to the BBC. Five were discharged on 3 November, a sixth three days later, and the seventh this week. Health minister Aden Duale said 135 identified contacts of the patients had completed 21 days in isolation.

"Today with the discharge of the last patient we can confirm and tell the world that seven patients have recovered," Duale said.

Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case in early October, in a businessman who died within days of arriving in Nairobi. He had contracted the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak that began in May has killed more than 5,000 people, the BBC reported. His mother also died. No new confirmed cases have been reported since 20 October, and officials found no evidence of wider community transmission.

The World Health Organization requires 42 days to pass after the last patient tests negative and is discharged, or after the last patient is safely buried, before an outbreak is declared over. The Rio Times reported the countdown runs to 23 December.

Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote on X: "This is an encouraging moment for Kenya and for Africa. We must sustain surveillance and vigilance until the outbreak is officially declared over."

Duale said surveillance would stay heightened at border crossings, airports, health facilities and in communities, with emergency teams on alert. Travellers arriving from affected countries will be monitored, and Kenyans returning from those areas must file electronic health declarations, be screened on arrival and spend 21 days in quarantine. He urged countries that had imposed travel and visa restrictions to lift them, saying Kenya did not intend to act as a quarantine centre for another country. In May a Kenyan court suspended US plans to open an Ebola quarantine facility in the country for American citizens.

Gulf states have kept restrictions in place. Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas to Kenyan nationals in late October. The United Arab Emirates said it was lifting its suspension on new visas for Ugandan nationals, but applicants must spend at least 21 days outside Uganda first; students, diplomatic passport holders and embassy staff may enter under approved health procedures. Uganda declared its own outbreak over on 27 August.

The Congolese outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which is relatively rare and has no approved vaccine or treatment, though trials are under way, according to the BBC.