Kenya's Last Ebola Patient Goes Home as 42-Day Countdown Begins Toward a December 23 Declaration
The WHO Regional Office for Africa reported that Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Health, Aden Duale, announced that the country's last Ebola patient went home on November 11, 2026, and the last 11 contacts also returned home the same day after completing monitoring in good health. For the first time since Kenya confirmed its first case 37 days earlier, the country has no patient in treatment and no contacts in quarantine.
A 42-day countdown began on November 12. Duale said 42 days is twice the virus's longest incubation period, and if no new case is recorded, Kenya will be declared free of Ebola on December 23, 2026. The World Health Organization congratulated Kenya on the milestone, and Dr Abdourahmane Diallo, Director for Programme Management at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, took part in the announcement.
Kenya confirmed its first case of Bundibugyo virus disease on October 6, 2026, in a Kenyan who had travelled home from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda. The last case was confirmed on October 19 and no new case has been recorded since; five patients were discharged on November 3. The outbreak remains active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa)
Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：世界卫生组织总部主楼（日内瓦）。照片：Thorkild Tylleskar，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / WHO headquarters in Geneva. Photo by Thorkild Tylleskar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
