DR Congo Ebola Outbreak Spreads To Nord-Ubangi, Kenya Cases Reach Eight

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Nord-Ubangi province in DRC reports two Ebola cases, including one death. Kenya confirms eight Ebola cases, with a latest new patient bringing total to eight.

Eighth Province Confirmed

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak spread to an eighth province after new cases were confirmed in Nord-Ubangi Province, with the health ministry reporting two men in their 20s tested positive in the Wapinda health zone and one patient died.

Qazinform News Agency, citing Xinhua, said the DRC had recorded 9,415 confirmed Ebola cases and 4,536 deaths since the outbreak began in May, producing a case fatality rate of 48.2%.

Kenya’s Health Ministry confirmed another case of Ebola, bringing Kenya’s confirmed infections to eight, and Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Patrick Amoth said, "Today, 38 people were tested, and one tested positive for Ebola."

DW also said the first patient died on October 5, and it described the latest case as a 49-year-old man who was not a healthcare worker and had developed fever, headache and muscle pain.

Quarantine, Testing, and Risk

Kenya’s Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Patrick Amoth said patients in quarantine were being tested after developing symptoms, and he said the other six patients were stable after receiving supportive treatment.

DW reported that Amoth said the latest case was a patient attendant who cleaned utensils and linen and had likely been exposed to Kenya's first Ebola case, discovered earlier this month.

The Health Ministry recorded two cases, including one death, in Nord-Ubangi province, and the patients were men in their 20s living in the Wapinda health zone.

World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi said, "We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it’s spreading out," while he spoke in Beni, eastern Congo.

Containment and Clinical Efforts

Health authorities in the region intensified surveillance after new infections were detected in Kenya, and medical and health containment teams intensified border controls to curb the spread of Ebola in Central and East Africa. An official report from the Ministry of Health confirmed that one of the affected patients died and medical teams investigated the origin of the infectious vector in the locality.

There is no vaccine or treatment specifically targeting Bundibugyo virus causing this outbreak, and researchers in Uganda launched a phase 1 clinical trial of a candidate vaccine to combat the Bundibugyo virus. Eugene Ruzagira, PhD, senior scientist at the Medical Research Council, the Uganda Virus Research Institute, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, said, "In a phase one vaccine trial, what we are looking out for is whether the vaccine is safe".