Kenya records second Ebola death as cases stay in one cluster

According to the ministry statement carried by The Star, the 65-year-old woman who died was Kenya's third case. She was a direct contact of the first patient, who died on 6 October. Her symptoms began on 13 October while she was in quarantine. The ministry says all 9 cases trace back to a single cluster of known contacts, with no evidence of community transmission.

The WHO outbreak bulletin of 23 October counts 9,704 confirmed cases and 4,687 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo as of 20 October. Nigeria confirmed 1 imported case in Abuja on 20 October and is monitoring 44 contacts. WHO rates the national risk as very high, the risk for countries bordering Congo as high and the global risk as low. It has asked governments not to impose travel or trade restrictions on affected countries.

Border policy is diverging. Semafor reports that Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said on 23 October that he did not recommend border closures because they push travellers towards informal crossings. He noted that the Nigerian patient moved around undiagnosed for about 10 days. Uganda, by contrast, banned transit by travellers who had been in Congo on 23 October, according to a report by Chinese state media Xinhua republished in Uganda. Donor funding that Africa CDC can track stands at 450 million dollars. The agency had earlier said more than 700 million dollars in funding had not been reported to Congolese authorities.