Kenya Confirms Second Ebola Case, Found in Quarantine

Updated 08:12 UTC, Oct. 27, 2026. Kenya released the first 20 contacts of its imported Bundibugyo Ebola case on Monday after they completed 21 days of monitoring without developing symptoms, the Health Ministry said. Director General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth said the 20 had passed a final health assessment and were returning to their families, and he asked communities to welcome them home without stigma. "Having completed 21 days without symptoms, they pose no risk of infection to anyone," Amoth said, in a statement reported by the World Health Organization regional office for Africa.

The ministry said 98 contacts remain in quarantine and would be released in four waves beginning November 3, depending on individual health assessments, Capital FM reported. Confirmed cases remained at nine, including two deaths, and the seven surviving patients were stable in treatment units. The WHO said all 135 contacts had been traced and placed in quarantine by October 22, and that the eight contacts who later developed symptoms and tested positive were already in quarantine when they fell ill. Genomic sequencing of three case samples showed a genetic link to the first case and to the Bundibugyo virus lineage in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ministry said.

Updated 22:22 UTC, Oct 23, 2026. Kenya has recorded a second death from Ebola, the Health Ministry said late on Friday. The patient was a 65 year old woman, a close relative of the first patient, who died earlier this month. She had been in quarantine when she developed symptoms on Oct. 13, was admitted to an infectious disease unit the same day, and died early on Friday evening, Director General for Health Dr. Patrick Amoth said in the ministry statement. The death brings the total to two deaths among nine confirmed cases. Seven patients are still receiving care in two isolation facilities. The ministry said all nine cases remain linked to one cluster of known contacts, with no evidence of community spread, and Reuters reported that authorities have traced 135 contacts, all of whom were placed in quarantine. The outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has now been reported in four countries, which Reuters said gives it the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak in Africa to date. The strain is Bundibugyo, for which there is no approved treatment or vaccine.

Updated 21:09 UTC, Oct 17, 2026. Kenya confirmed four new Ebola cases on Saturday, bringing the total to seven, the Health Ministry said. Three of the new patients are health workers who treated the first patient, and the fourth is a male relative of that patient, who died. The relative had been in quarantine since October 6. The three health workers, two men and a woman aged 29, 35 and 32, cared for the first patient on October 3 and 4 and had been in quarantine since October 9. All four new patients were already in quarantine when they developed symptoms and were diagnosed, Reuters reported. The cases are the first known infections passed on inside Kenya. The ministry said the second and third patients confirmed earlier are stable and responding well to supportive treatment. It said 128 of 130 listed contacts, or 98.5 percent, had been traced and placed in quarantine, and efforts to trace the remaining two were ongoing. The ministry said the risk to the general public remains low, with no evidence of community transmission, and that there are no restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain, Reuters reported.

Kenya has confirmed a second case of Ebola, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, October 14. The patient is a 39 year old man, a close family member of the country's first case, and he was already in quarantine when he fell ill.

Kenya now has two confirmed cases and one death. The ministry said the two cases are linked and that there is no evidence the virus has spread in the wider community.

Found in quarantine

The man developed fever, fatigue and joint pains on Tuesday, October 13, while health teams were checking him daily in quarantine. They isolated him at once and took samples. Tests at the National Virology Reference Laboratory and at the Kenya Medical Research Institute CDC laboratory both came back positive, the ministry said.

He has been moved to a designated treatment centre, where he is receiving supportive care. Director General for Health Patrick Amoth said the case was caught early because the man was already being monitored, and that early care improves his chances of recovery. Health teams are also checking people who had contact with him since his symptoms began, including quarantine staff and health workers.

The first case

The first patient was a 40 year old Kenyan man who had been living in Congo, where he had been ill for about a month and treated at two health facilities. He travelled by road to Uganda, then flew to Nairobi on October 3, where a relative drove him to hospital. He tested positive for Ebola on October 5 and died the same day.

That journey has raised questions about border screening. The patient crossed from Congo into Uganda even though that border has been closed since May, Reuters reported. Kenya has since tightened screening at border crossings and airports.

128 contacts

By October 13, health officials had identified 128 contacts of the first patient. They had traced 113 of them. Of those, 108 are in quarantine in Kenya, with daily clinical checks and temperature checks for 21 days from their last possible exposure. Five contacts are outside Kenya, and health authorities in those countries have been told. Tracing of the remaining 15 contacts is still going on.

The ministry urged people to stay calm but alert, and to report suspected illness through its emergency hotline. It has not imposed restrictions on travel, trade or public gatherings.

The wider outbreak

Kenya is the fourth country to record a case linked to the Ebola epidemic in Congo, which Reuters described as the second largest on record. The Congo outbreak was declared in mid May and is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a rare strain. Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths earlier this year but was declared Ebola free in August. A doctor who returned to France from Congo in June tested positive, with no further spread.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person who is sick or has died. It can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, and in severe cases internal and external bleeding.