Nairobi, October 22, 2026 — Health Director General Dr. Patrick Amoth has confirmed that the first group of people quarantined as contacts of Ebola patients will begin leaving isolation facilities on Sunday, October 25, after completing the mandatory 21-day monitoring period.Citizen
The discharge exercise will be supported by the Kenya National Public Health Institute (KNPHI). Speaking from the Ministry of Health headquarters in Nairobi, Amoth expressed optimism that the outbreak could soon move toward an official end if containment holds, noting that authorities may begin a 42-day countdown — the World Health Organization standard for declaring an Ebola outbreak over — if no new cases emerge.Citizen
“And if the situation obtains, we’ll very soon start our countdown, the 42 days, to determine that the outbreak is over,” Amoth said. He stressed that all confirmed cases remain clustered around a single imported index case, with no evidence of community transmission.Citizen
Kenya has recorded nine confirmed cases of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease. The index patient, a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo and traveled through Uganda, arrived in Nairobi on October 3 and died on October 5 after treatment at a Nairobi hospital. Subsequent cases have involved relatives and healthcare or support workers linked to the initial patient. Amoth reported that the eight surviving patients are improving and responding well to treatment. The ministry has also received 500 doses of medicines to support care for confirmed cases.Citizen
Contact tracing has been highly successful: health authorities have identified 135 contacts and placed 134 of them (99.3 percent) under quarantine for daily monitoring of symptoms such as fever, fatigue, headache, and muscle pain. One contact remains untraced. Amoth credited the response team, including acting KNPHI CEO Dr. Kamene Kimenye Mariita, for their coordination efforts.Citizen
While urging continued calm and vigilance, Amoth cautioned that Kenya is “not out of the woods.” He advised the public against panic and encouraged healthcare workers to familiarize themselves with recently gazetted rules governing the response to the disease, which has been declared a formidable epidemic under the Public Health Act.Eastleighvoice
The Bundibugyo strain currently has no approved vaccine or specific antiviral treatment; care relies on supportive measures. The announcement marks a significant milestone in Kenya’s response to the outbreak, which originated from an ongoing large-scale epidemic in the DRC.