India Donates Sh83.3 million Ebola Response Supplies to Kenya
The Ministry of Health has received Ebola response supplies valued at Sh83.39 million from the Government of India to strengthen Kenya’s response to the Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak.
The donation includes 6,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, 60 powered air-purifying respirators, 30,000 N95 masks and more than 86,000 sample transport kits. Other supplies include gowns, gloves, face shields, protective boots and infrared thermometers.
The supplies were received on Monday at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) facility in Embakasi from India’s High Commissioner to Kenya, Dr Adarsh Swaika.
Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Mary said the donation would support health workers, treatment and isolation centres, rapid response teams, and screening operations at points of entry and health facilities.
The Ministry reaffirmed its commitment to containing the outbreak through early detection, isolation and strengthened infection prevention and control measures. It also urged Kenyans to remain calm and vigilant.
Kenya’s Ebola caseload has risen to eight, raising concerns over hospital safety and contact tracing as health authorities work to contain the Bundibugyo virus.
The latest case, reported on Sunday, October 18, 2026, involved a 49-year-old man who was not a healthcare worker. He reportedly developed a fever, headache and muscle pain after being exposed to the country’s first confirmed case.
“Today, 38 people were tested, and one tested positive for Ebola,” Health Ministry Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth said in an interview with Citizen TV.
Amoth said the latest patient was an attendant who cleaned utensils and linen and was likely exposed to the first Ebola patient, who died in Nairobi on Monday, October 5, 2026.
He added that patients in quarantine were being tested after developing symptoms, while six other patients were stable after receiving supportive treatment.
Kenya has remained on heightened alert amid the spread of the highly contagious disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
On Sunday, authorities in the DRC reported that the outbreak had spread to an eighth province in the north of the country.
The Congolese Health Ministry said two cases, including one death, had been recorded in Nord-Ubangi province, which borders the Central African Republic.
World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi said the outbreak appeared to be declining in some areas but was spreading geographically.
“We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it’s spreading out,” Janabi told The Associated Press in Beni, eastern Congo, on Friday.
The outbreak has caused at least 9,400 cases and more than 4,500 deaths in the DRC since it was declared in mid-May, according to the figures provided.
The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Symptoms may include fever, fatigue and muscle pain, followed by vomiting and diarrhoea. Some patients may also experience internal or external bleeding.
