A medical worker checks the temperature of a traveller within the health port services at the Malaba crossing-point between Kenya and Uganda after a man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo travelled and died of a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo species at the Nairobi Hospital, in Malaba, Kenya Oct 8, 2026. REUTERS/Jackson Adika
Published : 14 Oct 2026, 11:22 PM
Updated : 14 Oct 2026, 11:22 PM
Kenya has reported a second Ebola case, a week after recording its first-ever infection of the disease, when a Kenyan man who had been living in Congo died in a Nairobi hospital on Oct 5.
The second patient, a 39-year-old man and close family member of the first case, was already in quarantine when he fell ill on Tuesday, the health ministry said in a statement.
The first patient had been ill in Congo about a month before travelling by road to Uganda. He flew to Nairobi on Oct 3, where a relative drove him to hospital.
The case has raised concerns about gaps in regional border screening, as the patient was able to cross the border between Congo and Uganda, which has been closed since May.
Kenya is the fourth country to record a case linked to the Ebola epidemic in Congo, the world’s second-largest on record, with more than 8,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths.
Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths earlier this year but was declared Ebola-free in August. A doctor who returned to France from Congo in June also tested positive, but no further spread was reported.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, whether living or dead. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, with severe cases sometimes causing internal and external bleeding.
The outbreak in Congo was declared in mid-May but may have begun months earlier. It is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.