Kenya reports second death from Ebola

Kenya has recorded a second Ebola death, with the Health Ministry saying on Friday that a 65-year-old woman died after developing symptoms while in quarantine.

The woman was a close relative of a Kenyan man who died of Ebola earlier this month and had been in direct contact with the country’s first confirmed case, the ministry said.

The outbreak, which began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been reported in four African countries, spreading across eastern, central and western Africa.

Kenya’s first case was identified this month in a man who travelled from the DRC to Nairobi and died at a hospital on October 5.

Since then, authorities have traced 135 contacts, all of whom were placed in quarantine. Nine cases have been confirmed in the country.

The woman who died on Friday evening was a direct contact of the first patient, the ministry said.

“This loss brings the number of deaths to two among the nine confirmed cases. The remaining seven patients continue to receive care in the two isolation facilities,” the ministry said, adding that there was no evidence of community transmission in Kenya.

On Monday, the US State Department advised Americans to reconsider travel to Kenya, raising the country’s travel advisory level over health risks.

Nigeria became the fourth African country to report an Ebola case on Tuesday, with authorities investigating how the patient, who had not travelled to the DRC, contracted the virus.

In the DRC, Ebola has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed more than 4,600, according to the figures cited in the original report.

The disease can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding. People infected with Ebola can transmit the virus when they develop symptoms.

The rare Ebola virus species responsible for the current outbreak has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, according to the original report.