Kenya has discharged its last remaining Ebola patient, a milestone that starts a 42-day countdown toward the country being declared free of the disease. The patient has officially recovered, according to the report, and the discharge took place on Wednesday, November 11.
Eleven other people who had been quarantined were released from hospital on the same day. Their release means that no one is currently being held in isolation in connection with the outbreak, although the country has not yet been cleared of the virus. The report does not give the names of those discharged or describe their conditions beyond their release.
The 42-day period is tied to the standard incubation-period monitoring window used to judge whether an outbreak has ended. During this time health authorities will watch for any new cases, and the country will only be declared Ebola-free once the window has passed without further infections. The report does not say exactly when that declaration would come. It is also unclear whether new cases could still emerge while the countdown runs, and the report does not indicate what measures, if any, would be stepped up during the monitoring period.
The report, filed by FRANCE 24 Nairobi correspondent Bastien Renouil, is a short video piece. It does not give overall case totals, the size of the original outbreak, or how it began, and it contains no direct quotations from health officials or patients. Those details were not included in the material available for this story.
For residents and visitors in Kenya, the coming six weeks will be the test of whether the country can keep the outbreak contained. Any new case would reset the process, so the countdown depends on the absence of further transmission. Readers seeking case figures, the outbreak's origin or the official timetable for the declaration will need to follow updates from Kenyan health authorities.
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