Africa CDC says it has mobilised about US$1.5m and 10 experts for Kenya's Ebola response

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has mobilised about US$1.5 million in financial, technical and operational support for Kenya's Ebola response, the African Union's public health agency said on 27 October.

Africa CDC's Director-General, Dr Jean Kaseya, met Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Health, Aden Duale. The agency praised the Kenyan government's strong political leadership and stressed the importance of early detection, timely interventions and robust surveillance.

The support includes 10 African public health experts, laboratory reagents and diagnostic test kits, and help with surveillance, contact tracing, case management and community engagement. Africa CDC is also providing equipment valued at about US$350,000 for Kenya's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre.

Both men stressed that no country can confront a public health emergency alone, the release said, adding: "Africa's health security is a shared responsibility."

The agency has convened an Extraordinary Meeting of African Ministers of Health on 28 October to assess the situation and agree on urgent measures. The ministers were invited on 21 October to the virtual meeting, which Dr Kaseya said would "strengthen our collective response", the Associated Press reported.

Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on 6 October, an imported case of Bundibugyo virus disease. As of 26 October, it had nine confirmed cases and two deaths, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Africa regional office said. All nine cases belong to one connected group, with no evidence of community spread.

Eight of the nine patients were contacts of the first case who were already in quarantine when they developed symptoms and tested positive. They were moved to the Ebola treatment centre in Nairobi. By 22 October, all contacts had been traced, in Kenya and abroad, and placed in quarantine.

On 26 October, 20 contacts who had completed 21 days of monitoring without symptoms were released and sent home. Another 98 contacts remain in quarantine.

WHO is helping Kenya with response coordination, surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing, case management, infection prevention and control, point-of-entry screening and risk communication. It says there is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for Bundibugyo virus disease, and it advises against travel restrictions.

The Ministry of Health said on 7 October that the toll-free health line for the public is 719, and that screening had been intensified at Gate 16, especially for travellers from 10 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and South Sudan.