The African Union (AU), acting through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has announced the deployment of technical and logistical support to Kenya to strengthen the country's response to an Ebola outbreak, following confirmation of four new cases that bring the national total to seven.

All seven infections stem from an imported case originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In a statement issued on Saturday, Africa CDC said it is working with the Kenyan government across key emergency response areas, with particular focus on "epidemiological surveillance, technical coordination, risk communication and community engagement".

The continental health body stressed the urgent need to supply personal protective equipment to frontline healthcare workers, after it emerged that three of the four newly confirmed cases involve health professionals who treated the index patient at hospital.

Africa CDC said reinforcing infection prevention and control measures is a priority, and committed to ensuring "adequate protective equipment, training and continuous support" for health workers on the frontline.

Given the trajectory of the epidemic in the DRC — the source of Kenya's first detected case — the agency said it would intensify cross-border surveillance and early detection among member states to prevent further regional spread of the virus.

Kenya's Ministry of Health, for its part, stated that the risk to the general public remains low, "given that there is no evidence of community transmission of the disease".

Of the 130 people identified as having been in contact with the index patient, 128 — representing 98.5% — have been traced and placed in quarantine, surpassing the global benchmark of 85% contact tracing coverage considered necessary to break the chain of transmission.

Kenya confirmed its first imported Ebola case on 5 October: a 40-year-old man who had lived in the DRC for the past seven years. The index patient received treatment at several Congolese hospitals before travelling overland to Kampala and subsequently flying from Uganda to Nairobi, where he landed on 3 October and died two days later.

"The continental health body stressed the urgent need to supply personal protective equipment to frontline healthcare workers, after it emerged that three of the four newly confirmed cases involve health professionals who treated the index patient at hospital."

Since then, health authorities have initiated contact tracing to identify individuals who may have been exposed to the virus during the patient's journey and treatment.

Kenya is the fourth country to record a case linked to the DRC Ebola epidemic, joining Uganda, France and the Netherlands. The virus also spread to Uganda, where the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of that outbreak on 26 August, after recording 20 confirmed cases — including 15 imported from the DRC — and two deaths.

The epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second deadliest in recorded global history, having produced 9,277 confirmed cases, including 4,478 deaths, according to the latest figures from the Congolese government.