Kenya Confirms Its First Two Ebola Cases. The Health Ministry Says Don't Panic

Kenya has confirmed its first two Ebola cases, and DW reports the news has raised urgent questions about the country's public health preparedness and about border controls. The health ministry's answer has been that there is no need for panic — which it says with the authority of the body that would have to run the response if the cases multiply, and with the interest any ministry has in keeping the public calm while it works out whether it can contain them. Reassurance is a claim about how people should behave; whether a country can detect and contain cases at its borders is an operational question that reassurance doesn't answer. Both can be true at once: a small, contained outbreak and a health system that would struggle with a large one. The first two confirmed cases are the moment those two questions stop being hypothetical.