In brief

• Kenya has discharged its last Ebola patient from a Nairobi hospital, leaving all seven survivors recovered.
• The country recorded nine cases and two deaths, with 135 contacts completing their monitoring.
• If no new case appears, Kenya will be declared Ebola-free on 23 December.

Last patient leaves hospital

The country's health minister, Aden Duale, told reporters in Nairobi on Wednesday that the final Ebola patient had been released from a Nairobi hospital. With that discharge, all seven survivors are now counted as recovered (Epidemie in Afrika: Letzter Ebola-Patient aus Klinik in Kenia entlassen – FAZ.NET) (Epidemie - Letzter Ebola-Patient in Kenia als geheilt aus Krankenhaus entlassen – Deutschlandfunk) (Kenya's last Ebola patient leaves hospital – DW). Kenya recorded nine confirmed cases in total, and two infected people died (Ebola: Letzter Ebolapatient in Kenia aus Klinik entlassen – DER SPIEGEL).

Contacts released from quarantine

The ministry said 135 people identified as contacts of the infected patients completed 21 days of isolation and monitoring (Kenya discharges last Ebola patient in key milestone to being declared free of the virus – BBC News). Duale said no further infections had been recorded among them, and their quarantine has been lifted.

Countdown to the declaration

Kenya will be declared Ebola-free on 23 December if no new case appears before then. That date is 42 days after the discharge, a period covering two infection cycles. The health ministry said all nine cases stayed within a single transmission cluster and that no community spread was recorded.

How the outbreak reached Kenya

Kenya reported its first case on 6 October. The Congo outbreak, first confirmed in May, is described by the World Health Organization as the worst Ebola epidemic in that country's history. The national institute there reports more than 11,000 infections and over 5,300 deaths.

Why it matters for tourism

Tourism is one of Kenya's largest economic sectors, and the timing of the declaration falls at the start of the main travel season. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention called the recovery of the last patient an important achievement in the regional response, but warned that surveillance must continue until the outbreak is over across the continent.