Kenya Confirms Four New Ebola Cases

Kenya confirmed four new cases of Ebola on Saturday, as the country’s Health Ministry sought to assuage fears that the virus could spread among the public at large.

The new infections, which bring the total in Kenya to seven, come days after the country announced its first-ever Ebola case on Oct. 6. A relative of the first patient and three health workers who treated him are among those infected, the Health Ministry said.

A disastrous Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, now the second largest on record, has killed more than 4,400 people there and infected more than twice that. The first case in Kenya, found in a man who died after arriving from Congo, raised worries of cross-border transmission.

Kenya’s border and Bunia, Congo, the city most deeply affected by the outbreak, are less than 500 miles apart, separated only by Uganda.

But Kenyan officials are saying that the virus is under control.

The Health Ministry said it had traced and quarantined most people who could be at risk of infection. “There is no evidence of community transmission of the disease,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The second and third Ebola patients, who are relatives of the first patient, are in stable condition and responding to treatment, the ministry added.

All of the cases in Kenya involve the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or accepted treatment, according to the World Health Organization.

While less deadly than the Zaire strain of the virus — which accounts for the majority of Ebola deaths in previous outbreaks — the Bundibugyo’s fatality rate can reach 50 percent, according to the United Nations.

The Congo outbreak, first discovered in the eastern region of Ituri, has become the largest in the country’s history. There have been more than 9,200 confirmed Ebola cases so far, according to government data.

Uganda has also recorded 20 cases and three deaths, largely among people arriving from Congo, the Ugandan authorities said, but the virus there was quickly contained, and the World Health Organization declared the Ugandan outbreak over in August.

Ebola controls have become contentious in Kenya, particularly after accusations that President William Ruto had bowed to U.S. interests by allowing the construction of an Ebola quarantine facility for Americans at an air base in central Kenya. Hundreds marched in June to protest that facility.