Authorities investigating if first Kenya and Nigeria Ebola circumstances crossed paths : NPR

Kenya Red Cross personnel during a simulation of the evacuation of remains of an Ebola victim in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 22, 2026. Kenyan authorities detected a ninth case of Ebola in the country, the health ministry said Tuesday, with a first case reported on October 6 -- a businessman in his forties who had lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where there has been a major outbreak since May. Since the first, eight additional cases have emerged, mostly people with a close connection to the first victim, who died in the capital Nairobi on October 5.

Kenya Crimson Cross personnel throughout a simulation of the evacuation of stays of an Ebola sufferer within the Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 22. Kenyan authorities detected a ninth case of Ebola within the nation, the well being ministry stated Tuesday.

Tony Karumba/AFP through Getty Photos

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Tony Karumba/AFP through Getty Photos

JOHANNESBURG – The primary Ebola affected person confirmed in Nigeria could have crossed paths with the primary Kenyan Ebola affected person at a Ugandan airport, well being officers stated Thursday.

Nigeria introduced its first case of Ebola in additional than a decade on Tuesday. Nigerian well being authorities stated the affected person is the Ugandan-born spouse of a diplomat primarily based in Abuja who had vacationed in Uganda in September and returned to Nigeria earlier this month.

She is being handled and 44 folks she had shut contact with have been quarantined, Dr. Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness and response on the Africa Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, instructed a press briefing on Thursday.

Authorities at the moment are investigating what the supply of her publicity was.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is the fourth on the continent to file an Ebola case throughout the present outbreak, however it’s the primary in West Africa and the furthest away from the epicenter within the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Rupa Narra is a U.S. pediatrician who arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo to help care for stricken children. Nothing could have prepared her for what she'd face.

Congo’s present Ebola outbreak started in Might within the nation’s east. It has change into the quickest spreading on file. At the least 4,600 folks have died and about 9,700 have been contaminated in Congo.

Neighboring Uganda initially recorded about 20 circumstances however was declared Ebola-free in August.

The primary case in Kenya was recorded in early October and since then eight different circumstances have been confirmed within the east African nation.

The primary Kenyan affected person, who has since died, travelled from Congo to Kenya, through Uganda.

Officers at the moment are investigating whether or not that particular person crossed paths with the Nigeria case on the Entebbe Worldwide Airport in Uganda – as they had been there on the identical day.

Dr. Mankoula stated the middle was probing whether or not there had been “some type of interplay between the 2 circumstances on the airport.”

Ebola is unfold by direct contact with an contaminated particular person’s bodily fluids or contaminated objects. It causes extreme fever and will be lethal. Nonetheless, usually persons are not thought of infectious till they begin displaying signs.