Kenya reports second Ebola death as Nigeria investigates first case

U.S. rules bar boarding after recent Congo travel

Africa CDC had said earlier that the first patients in Nigeria and Kenya traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on Oct. 3. Kenya’s first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan man living in Congo, traveled to Kenya via Uganda and arrived that day. A relative drove him to Nairobi Hospital, where he tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 5 and died the same day. Kenya announced its first-ever case on Oct. 6.

Authorities had identified some 135 contacts of Kenya’s first patient and placed 118 of them in quarantine. Eight tested positive while in quarantine, including four health workers and four close family members. Kenya’s Health Ministry said the remaining seven Ebola patients were receiving treatment at two isolation facilities and no new infections had been reported. Some contacts who completed the 21-day quarantine period without developing symptoms would be released starting Saturday.

On Friday, Kenya’s Health Ministry announced the country’s second Ebola death. The ministry said a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the first patient died after developing symptoms while in quarantine. She began showing symptoms 10 days ago and received supportive care in an infectious disease unit in Nairobi before dying Friday evening. The ministry said medical personnel “did everything possible to save her life.” Her family was notified, and the ministry said it would arrange a safe and dignified burial in consultation with relatives.

In Nigeria, authorities said Friday that they had yet to verify how the country’s first Ebola patient contracted the disease. The woman tested positive for the virus upon returning to Abuja from Uganda. She was married to a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria whom she had been traveling with.

Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday that the woman did not visit Congo and “is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda.” Her husband had not shown symptoms and remained in isolation, the foreign affairs department said.

Nigeria’s Health Minister Muhammad Pate told reporters on Friday that the Nigerian patient “appears to be closely related” to the first case in Kenya in terms of the nature of their infection. Pate said, “That may or may not change the understanding of the route of transmission given that the virus itself takes time to change.”

United States health officials said this week that all passengers boarding an international flight to the United States, regardless of origin, must sign a statement attesting that they had not been in Congo during the previous 21 days. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that travelers who were in Congo during the three weeks leading to their trip would not be allowed to board flights with U.S. destinations, including Americans.

The United States has also been screening travelers from Ebola-affected countries during the current outbreak. Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, including blood and vomit, or through contact with contaminated materials and surfaces such as bedding and clothing.

Congo is experiencing its deadliest Ebola outbreak, with at least 4,000 deaths since May.

Dyepkazah Shibayan in Abuja, Nigeria, and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to the report.