NAIROBI – Kenya’s Health Ministry announced the country's second Ebola death Friday, saying a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the first patient died after developing symptoms while in quarantine.
The woman began showing symptoms 10 days ago and began receiving supportive care at an infectious disease unit in the capital, Nairobi.
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The ministry said medical personnel “did everything possible to save her life,” but she died Friday evening.
Her family was notified, and the ministry said it would arrange a safe and dignified burial in consultation with relatives.
The remaining seven Ebola patients were receiving treatment at two isolation facilities. No new infections were reported.
Kenya announced its first ever Ebola case on Oct. 6 after a 40-year-old Kenyan man who was living in Congo travelled to Kenya via Uganda, arriving on Oct. 3. He was driven by a relative to Nairobi Hospital, where he tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 5 and died the same day.
Authorities have identified some 135 contacts of the first patient, placing 118 in quarantine. Eight tested positive while in quarantine, including four health workers and four close family members.
The health ministry said some contacts who completed the 21-day quarantine period without developing symptoms would be released starting Saturday.
'Nigerian patient did not travel to Congo'
In Nigeria, authorities said Friday that they were yet to verify how the country’s first Ebola patient contracted the disease. The woman tested positive for the virus upon her return to Nigeria's capital of Abuja from Uganda.
The woman — married to a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria whom she had been traveling with — did not visit Congo and “is believed to have contracted the virus whilst travelling to Uganda,” Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, or FDFA, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Her husband has not shown any symptoms and remains in isolation, the FDFA added.
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. "That may or may not change the understanding of the route of transmission given that the virus itself takes time to change,” Pate said.
The Africa CDC earlier said the first patients in Nigeria and Kenya had traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on Oct. 3.
US introduces new protocol for all travelers
United States health officials this week said that all passengers boarding an international flight to the U.S. — no matter from where — must sign a statement attesting that they've not been in Congo in the previous 21 days. The U.S. has been screening travelers from Ebola-affected countries during the current outbreak.
Travelers who were in Congo in the three weeks leading to their trip will not be allowed to board flights with U.S. destinations, including Americans, the U.S. CDC said Thursday.
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 outbreak, with at least 4,000 deaths since May.
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Dyepkazah Shibayan in Abuja, Nigeria and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.
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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa