Kenya reports second Ebola death, says cases remain in one cluster
Kenya says a quarantined relative of its first Ebola patient has died, while seven others receive treatment and officials report no community spread.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
2 min read
Kenya has reported its second Ebola death, saying a 65-year-old woman who was related to the country’s first patient died after developing symptoms in quarantine. The Kenya second Ebola death brings the reported toll to two, while seven other patients are being treated in isolation, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry said the woman began showing symptoms about 10 days before her death on October 23 and had received supportive care at an infectious-disease unit in Nairobi, the Associated Press reported. No new infections were reported in that update.
What does Kenya say about community spread?
Kenya’s Health Ministry said the known infections were part of one linked cluster and that it had found no evidence of community spread, according to Al Jazeera. That is the ministry’s assessment of the cases identified so far, rather than a declaration that there can be no further infections.
Officials have linked later cases to contacts of the first patient, a Kenyan man who travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda and died at a Nairobi hospital on October 5. The ministry first announced an additional confirmed case on October 14: a 39-year-old close relative who fell ill while already in quarantine, the BBC reported.
The October 23 announcement concerns a different relative and is Kenya’s second death, not its second confirmed case. The tally of two deaths and seven people in treatment is consistent with nine confirmed cases, though the ministry’s reported contact-tracing figures have changed as the inquiry has continued.
How is Kenya responding to the Ebola cases?
Authorities have used contact identification, quarantine and isolation to try to contain the cluster. The Health Ministry said about 135 contacts of the first patient had been identified and 118 were in quarantine as of October 23, the Associated Press reported.
Eight contacts tested positive while in quarantine, including four health workers and four close family members, according to that report. Some people who completed 21 days in quarantine without symptoms were due to begin leaving quarantine on October 24.
Earlier ministry figures, reported on October 14 and 15, listed 128 contacts, with 113 traced by October 13. Of those, 108 were in quarantine in Kenya and five were outside the country, while officials continued looking for 15 others, according to the BBC and Channel News Asia.
Ebola can spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials, the BBC reported. The first Kenyan patient had been living in the DRC, where the reported outbreak involves the Bundibugyo species of the virus.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.