Kenya releases first 20 Ebola contacts after 21-day quarantine

Kenya has released the first 20 contacts of its imported Ebola case from quarantine after they completed the mandatory 21-day monitoring period without developing symptoms, the World Health Organisation said on Monday, 26 October.

The Regional Office for Africa said the contacts were reunited with their families after a final health assessment and counselling on post-discharge precautions. “We ask communities to welcome them home warmly,” said Patrick Amoth, Kenya’s Director-General for Health, in the WHO statement. “Having completed 21 days without symptoms, they pose no risk of infection to anyone.”

Twenty other contacts developed symptoms while in quarantine and tested positive for the Bundibugyo virus. Kenya has now reported nine confirmed cases and two deaths, and the health ministry says all nine belong to one connected group with no evidence of spread in the community.

The country’s coverage until now has tracked the outbreak case by case. Kenya confirmed four additional cases, including three health workers, taking its total to seven on 17 October, and an eighth case, a patient attendant, two days later. The second death, a 65-year-old relative of the first patient, was subsequently confirmed by the ministry; Voice of Nigeria reported the burial teams preparing for it. The release of the first cohort is the response’s first measurable easing since the case count reached nine.

A total of 98 contacts remain in quarantine. Kenya’s health ministry said the remaining contacts would be released in phased groups from 3 November, depending on individual health assessments, Capital FM Kenya reported.

The first patient arrived in Nairobi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 3 October and died two days later; the case was announced on 6 October. Amoth’s ministry says all contacts, in Kenya and internationally, had been traced and placed in quarantine by 22 October.

WHO continues to support surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing and screening at points of entry in Kenya, and advises against travel restrictions. The outbreak can be declared over only after 42 days without a confirmed case testing positive, the ministry said.

Nigeria, which confirmed its own imported case and has since been declared free of active infection by the WHO with 52 contacts still under monitoring, is separately watching the same regional outbreak.

Sources: WHO Regional Office for Africa; Capital FM Kenya; Voice of Nigeria; Punch