Kenya reports second Ebola case, family member of first patient

​Kenya reported a second case of Ebola ​on Wednesday, about a week ‌after ​recording its first-ever infection of the viral disease when a Kenyan who had been living in Congo died in a Nairobi ‌hospital on October 5.

The second patient, a 39-year-old man, is a close family member of the first case and was already in quarantine when he fell ill on Tuesday, the health ‌ministry said in a statement. The first case emerged after a Kenyan man, who ‌had been ill in Congo about a month before travelling by road to Uganda, flew to Nairobi on October 3, where a relative drove him to the hospital.

The case has raised concerns about lapses in border screening ⁠systems ​in the region, ⁠with the patient able to cross the border between Congo and Uganda, which has been closed since May. Kenya is ⁠the fourth country to record a case linked to the Ebola epidemic in Congo, the second-largest ​on record globally with more than 8,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths.

Uganda reported ⁠20 cases and two deaths earlier in the year but was declared Ebola-free in August. A doctor who ⁠returned ​to France in June from Congo tested positive but there was no further spread of the virus. Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, whether ⁠living or dead. The disease can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and ⁠external bleeding.

The outbreak ⁠in Congo was declared in mid-May but may have started months earlier. It is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.