Kenya reports 2nd Ebola death as Nigeria races to understand transmission of index patient
Stephanie Soucheray, MAToday at 4:06 p.m.
Ebola
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
Today, officials in Kenya reported the country’s second Bundibugyo Ebola death, in a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the country’s index patient and began showing symptoms of infection 10 days ago.
The woman was under quarantine when she died and had been receiving supportive hospital-based care at an infectious disease unit in Nairobi. Kenya’s health ministry said it would help conduct a safe and dignified burial for the woman.
Kenyan officials said there are no new cases of the virus, with seven positive patients still receiving treatment in isolation units. All patients in Kenya were exposed to the virus via the index patient, who arrived in Kenya via Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on October 3.
Since that patient died on October 5, Kenya has identified 135 contacts of the first patient and placed 118 in quarantine. Over the weekend, the first contacts who completed their 21-day quarantine were released.
Nigerian patient airlifted to Switzerland
Nigeria’s index Ebola case-patient returned to Switzerland today in stable condition via air ambulance, according to a post on X. “The index patient was clinically much improved, stable, conscious, communicating, and her clinical laboratory test results closing towards baseline,” said Muhammad Ali Pate, the coordinating minister of health and social welfare for Nigeria. “This does not mean she is not still infectious, hence the strict protocols in place. The patient was evacuated along with her spouse who has remained asymptomatic.”Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, announced over the weekend he was sending a team of scientists to Nigeria to investigate how the country’s first, and so far only, Ebola patient was infected, after a close examination of the patient’s travel itinerary late last week showed no travel to the DRC.
The patient is 42-year-old Ugandan woman who is married to a Swiss national who works in Nigeria. She and her husband recently traveled to Uganda. Africa CDC said the index patients in both Kenya and Nigeria traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on October 3, which may have been the scene of transmission.
Switzerland said it would continue monitoring the Ebola patient and her husband, while Nigeria is continuing to monitor 52 case contacts in that country. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said, “The likelihood of infection for people from the EU/EEA [European Union/European Economic Area] living in or travelling to affected areas in Kenya and Nigeria is assessed as low, providing they adhere to recommended precautionary measures.”
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the latest outbreak numbers in the DRC show 9,964 cases and 4,841 deaths The case-fatality rate remains about 48%.
Other Ebola developments
- Yesterday, a nurse was killed and a health worker was attacked in Tshopo province, DRC, outside a clinic that was treating Ebola patients. Local authorities have not commented on the death, but on X, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said, “Everyone working to protect communities from this deadly disease must be able to work in dignity and safety. Healthcare must always be protected.”
- While the outbreak in the DRC is far from being under control, a new three-way vaccine trial will test Merck & Co.’s Ervebo shot (targeting the Ebola Zaire strain), as well as experimental alternatives developed by Moderna, the University of Oxford, and the Serum Institute of India. The first participants received the Ervebo shot on Friday in Bunia, DRC.
- Regeneron announced it has extended its agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to provide additional supplies of the Ebola treatment Inmazeb for US preparedness. The drug is a three-antibody cocktail of atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn, and reduces mortality by approximately 55% compared with an active control in trials conducted on Ebola Zaire.