Kenya Discharges Five Ebola Patients, Africa CDC Opposes Saudi Curbs

NAIROBI, KENYA    —  Kenya Ebola patients discharged on Tuesday included five people who had recorded repeated negative tests, while 46 contacts completed their 21-day quarantine, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said, as it backed Kenya’s call for Saudi Arabia to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions.

In a statement issued in Addis Ababa on 3 November, Africa CDC said the five patients were being discharged after five negative PCR tests. Kenya has recorded nine confirmed cases, including two deaths, all linked to one imported case, and no new confirmed case since 19 October.

Kenya Ebola patients discharged as quarantine ends

Capital FM reported on 2 November that Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale was optimistic that five of the seven patients still in treatment would be discharged after a second negative test, and that 46 contacts were due for release on 3 November. Combined with the 20 contacts released on 26 October, that would bring the number released from quarantine to 66.

The Ministry of Health has traced all 135 contacts linked to the initial imported case, Capital FM said. The first patient was a Kenyan national who travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda. The eight secondary infections included four health workers and four close family members.

The Star reported on 31 October that the ministry expects all contacts to leave quarantine by 11 November. After the last patients are discharged following two negative tests, Kenya can begin the World Health Organization’s 42-day countdown to declaring the outbreak over.

Africa CDC: partnership, not punishment

Africa CDC said travel measures “must be guided by scientific evidence, proportionality, transparency”, and that “the detection of an imported Ebola case is not, in itself, evidence of a failure of national health security.” It added: “Scientific standards must be applied consistently, whether an imported case is detected in an African country” or elsewhere, noting that an imported case had also been detected in France.

“Africa needs partnership, not punishment; solidarity, not stigma,” Director-General Jean Kaseya said. “Public health security must unite nations, not divide them.”

Saudi Arabia announced on 30 October that it would bar its citizens from travelling to Kenya and suspend visas for Kenyan travellers, and that anyone who had been in Kenya in the previous 21 days, including transit passengers, would be refused entry. Kenya’s foreign ministry called the restrictions “disproportionate and unsupported by the prevailing epidemiological situation in Kenya”, Capital FM reported, and asked Saudi Arabia to give WHO its scientific justification within 48 hours under the International Health Regulations.

Saudi Arabia said its decision was based on epidemiological assessments by its health authorities. The government had not said when the restrictions would be lifted, according to Capital FM. Saudi Arabia hosts many Kenyan migrant workers, and the measures could also affect students, business travellers, tourists and pilgrims.

The economic cost of the measures has not been quantified, but remittances from Kenyans working in Gulf countries are an important source of income for many families.

Africa CDC has argued throughout the outbreak that border closures and travel bans do not stop Ebola and can harm the economies of countries that report cases openly. At an extraordinary meeting last week, African health ministers agreed to keep borders open and strengthen surveillance instead.

WHO supports Kenya’s containment efforts and recommends surveillance, contact tracing and entry screening rather than travel restrictions.

Africa CDC’s statement also referred to Kenya’s Social Health Authority, which has registered more than 34 million Kenyans in about a year, and said that of about 3 billion pledged by some donors for the response, about 1 billion had been disbursed. The statement did not specify the currency of those figures.

The pictures of Kenya Ebola patients discharged and contacts going home mark visible progress. Health officials have urged communities to welcome people leaving quarantine and treatment, warning that stigma can discourage people from reporting symptoms in future.

With Kenya Ebola patients discharged and contacts leaving quarantine, attention turns to the two patients still in care, who must also record negative tests before discharge. Kenya’s response has relied on daily monitoring of contacts, a free hotline and quarantine in designated facilities, which officials say kept infections within a known cluster.

Kenya’s experience will shape how other countries manage imported cases. Rapid tracing and quarantine kept all infections within a known cluster, but the travel dispute shows the economic risks countries face when they report cases openly.

 

 

Why it matters: Kenya’s contained cluster shows rapid tracing works, and Africa CDC’s stance challenges penalties that could discourage transparent outbreak reporting.

 

 

Source: Africa CDC, November 2026.