Kenya has announced its second Ebola death, as the virus outbreak spreads from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to several parts of Africa. The Kenyan Ministry of Health said on Friday that the latest death was that of a 65-year-old woman who had developed symptoms during quarantine and was a close relative of a Kenyan man who died of Ebola earlier this month. The ministry added that Kenya currently has seven Ebola cases receiving treatment at two isolation facilities. All the cases are within “one cluster, with no evidence of community spread”, it added.
Kenya’s first Ebola case was identified this month in a man who travelled from DRC to Kenya and died at a Nairobi hospital on October 5. Since then, Kenyan authorities have traced 135 contacts, all of whom were placed in quarantine, with nine cases confirmed, including the two patients who died. The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in May and has since reported more than 9,000 cases and more than 4,600 deaths. The deadly disease has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
The current outbreak has now been reported in four countries across eastern, central and western Africa, giving it the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak on the continent to date. On Tuesday, Nigeria became the fourth African country to report an Ebola case. Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said on Friday that an analysis showed the case was closely related to the virus detected in the index case in Kenya. Uganda announced on Saturday that travellers with a history of travel to DRC would not be permitted to transit through the East African nation.
Uganda had recorded 20 people infected, almost all of whom had travelled from DRC, and two deaths before being declared Ebola-free in August.
