Second Ebola Patient Dies in Kenya as Nigeria Reports First Case

According to the Ministry of Health, the woman developed symptoms while in quarantine and was subsequently admitted to an infectious disease unit in Nairobi. She died on Friday evening despite receiving medical care.

Seven patients with confirmed Ebola infections are currently being treated at two isolation centers. No new cases have been reported. Authorities have identified around 135 people who had contact with the first patient and placed 118 of them in quarantine. Among the eight people subsequently found to have the virus were four healthcare workers and four close relatives of patients. Beginning Saturday, authorities plan to release people who have completed 21 days of monitoring without developing symptoms.

Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case on October 5. The patient, a 40-year-old man who lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), entered Kenya via Uganda on October 3. He was taken to a hospital in Nairobi, where he tested positive for Ebola and died later that day.

Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities are investigating how the country’s first Ebola patient became infected. The woman returned to the capital, Abuja, from Uganda and tested positive for the virus. According to Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, she had not visited the DRC and is believed to have contracted the infection while traveling in Uganda. Her husband, a Swiss diplomat, remains in isolation but has not developed any symptoms.

Nigeria’s Health Minister, Muhammad Pate, said the circumstances of the infection suggest that the case may be closely linked to Kenya’s first Ebola case. Earlier, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the first patients in both countries had passed through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on October 3.

Amid the spread of the virus, the United States has tightened screening requirements for international air travelers. All passengers traveling to the US must now sign a declaration confirming that they have not visited the DRC during the preceding 21 days. Anyone who has been in the country during that period will be barred from boarding flights to the US, including American citizens.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person and through contaminated objects and surfaces. A severe outbreak is ongoing in the DRC, where at least 4,000 deaths have been recorded since May, according to the information provided in the report.