Symbolic imageCongo Ebola deaths pass 4,500 as Kenya's cluster grows
Congo's Health Ministry reports 4,561 Ebola deaths, a fatality rate of 48.2%. Kenya has detected eight cases.
According to the ministry's bulletin, reported by TASS on Monday, 19 October, Congo has recorded 9,455 confirmed cases since the outbreak began on 15 May. Ituri Province accounts for 73.2% of all cases and 67.5% of new ones. The virus has reached 66 of 178 health zones across eight provinces, and 269 healthcare workers have been infected. Uganda declared its outbreak over on 28 July, which the WHO confirmed on 25 August.
Kenya's first cluster
Kenya confirmed its first case on 6 October: a Kenyan national who had lived in Congo, reached Nairobi via Uganda on 3 October and died on 5 October. The Guardian reports that the eighth patient has tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain, in the country's first cluster of the virus.
Dispute over US quarantine center
The Guardian reports that a US-built quarantine center at Kenya's Laikipia airbase for returning Americans has drawn local protests and a Kenyan court order to halt it, with litigation due to be decided in November. Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University asks whether Kenya is the safest place for Americans, noting that empty US treatment units exist.
Other opinions
The Guardian links Kenya's response gaps to US funding cuts and its WHO withdrawal, citing lower regional totals (over 4,300 dead). TASS reports only the Congolese ministry's figures and omits the US role.