Kenyan health authorities have confirmed an eighth Ebola case after a 49-year-old man tested positive for the virus, raising concerns over the spread of the disease.
Health Ministry Director Patrick Amoth disclosed the latest case in an interview with Citizen TV, saying the man had been in quarantine since earlier this month.
“Today we tested 38 persons, one turned positive,” Amoth said.
The patient, who worked as support staff at a health facility, handled duties including laundry and likely contracted the virus in the room of Kenya’s first Ebola patient, according to Amoth.
Kenya reported its first case this month after a businessman in his forties, who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), tested positive for the virus.
The man travelled by road and air through Uganda before arriving in Kenya, where he later died.
The seven other confirmed cases involve relatives of the first patient and healthcare workers who treated him. Amoth said they were in stable condition.
Kenyan authorities reported last week that they had identified 130 contacts linked to the outbreak, with 128 traced and placed in quarantine.
Neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 cases, almost all imported from the DRC, and two deaths before declaring the end of its outbreak two months ago.
Meanwhile, the Ebola epidemic in the DRC has exceeded 9,000 cases, with 4,381 deaths, according to Congolese health authorities.
