A health worker helps a colleague put on protective gear at Nairobi Hospital, Kenya, 7 October 2026. -

Last updated: 3 hours ago

Kenya

As Kenya records its second death from Ebola, with nine confirmed cases, the Red Cross has been training it staff in Nairobi in how to handle victims.

It said the fight to contain Ebola does not end when a patient dies, saying the handling and burial of the body is one of the highest-risk ways the disease is transmitted.

"We are basically just trying to do some bit of simulations. In the country we are the ones who have been delegated the mandate to be able to handle burials of victims as a result of Ebola,” said Dr Paul Olale, Head of public health emergencies at Kenya Red Cross.

“So we are just trying to refresh our teams on the safe and dignified burial to just ensure that the teams are always ready to be able to undertake any case whenever they appear."

Kenya's first case was a man who travelled to Nairobi from the Democratic Republic of Congo and died in the city on 5 October.

The health ministry has traced 135 people who had potentially be in contact with him, all of whom were placed in quarantine.

It says the person who died on Friday, a 65-year-old woman, was a close family member of the first victim.

and says the person who died on Friday was a direct contact of the index patient.

Kenya's first case was a man who travelled to Nairobi from the Democratic Republic of Congo and died in the city on 5 October.

Since then, the authorities have traced 135 contacts, all of whom were placed in quarantine.

Olale said all nine confirmed cases are linked to this “index case”.

“The details are quite clear, that based on the chain from the index case, that these are close relatives which basically interacted at one point or another with the index case,” he said.

He added that there have been no new cases reported outside Nairobi.

The ministry said the remaining seven confirmed patients continue to receive care in ‌two ⁠isolation facilities.

More than 4,000 people have died in Africa since Ebola was confirmed in the Congo in May, with the outbreak now reported in four countries on the continent.

Red Cross trains workers as Kenya records second Ebola death

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