Kenya Releases Last Ebola Patient, Starts 42-Day Countdown to Disease-Free Status

Kenya discharged its last Ebola patient on Wednesday, starting a 42-day countdown to when the country can be declared free of the disease, Health Minister Aden Duale said.

Kenya has reported nine Ebola cases since early October, when a Kenyan man tested positive for the disease and died after arriving from Democratic Republic of Congo, where a large outbreak was declared in May.

The other cases were all contacts of the index case.

One of the other patients died and seven recovered.

No new infections have been recorded since October 19, the health ministry told a press conference.

The last 11 people who had come into contact with confirmed cases were released from quarantine on Wednesday, the health ministry said.

Kenya will now require citizens arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo to undergo a 21-day quarantine, Duale said.

Ebola has been reported in four countries across eastern, central and western Africa, the widest geographic spread of any outbreak on the continent to date.

The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second-largest on record, with more than 11,000 cases confirmed.