Ebola: Kenya confirms eighth case, North Kivu closes borders to Ituri for one week

Kenya confirmed an eighth case of Ebola on October 19, 2026, marking a new stage in an epidemic that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is now spilling over East African borders. Director General for Health Patrick Amoth indicated on Citizen TV, as cited by Al Jazeera, that only one of the 38 people tested the previous day had tested positive.

The patient is a 49-year-old man who is not a healthcare worker: he worked with patients, tasked with cleaning dishes and laundry. Fever, headaches, and muscle pain appeared on Saturday, October 17; he was placed in quarantine and then tested, according to a Ministry of Health source cited by Al Jazeera. Patrick Amoth believes he was likely exposed to the very first patient identified in the country.

This initial patient had arrived in Nairobi from the DRC and died there on October 5, 2026. On October 17, the Kenyan ministry had already announced four additional cases, bringing the total to seven: three healthcare workers who had treated him and one relative of the deceased. According to the APA agency, these four cases were detected in people already in quarantine, and Africa CDC praised the speed of the Kenyan authorities' response.

A strain without a vaccine

The strain involved is Bundibugyo, for which there is neither an approved vaccine nor a specific treatment, Al Jazeera notes. The response therefore relies entirely on screening, contact tracing, and isolation—demanding tools that weigh heavily on frontline health workers, who are themselves among the first to be infected.

In the DRC, the deadliest epidemic in its history

Across the border, the Congolese death toll has crossed a historic threshold: at least 9,400 cases and more than 4,500 deaths since the start of the epidemic in May 2026, making it the deadliest ever recorded in the country, according to Al Jazeera. Ituri accounts for nearly three-quarters of confirmed cases. On October 18, the government announced that the virus had reached an eighth province, North Ubangi.

North Kivu, where the WHO notes that transmission remains sustained, has decided to ban entries from Ituri for one week starting October 19, according to the Congolese public agency ACP as cited by Al Jazeera. Plans are also in place to limit the number of passengers in cars and on motorcycles, as well as to suspend large gatherings.

Uganda, which had recorded 20 confirmed cases, including 15 imported from the DRC and two deaths, was declared Ebola-free in August. This precedent shows that an epidemic can be contained; it also shows how quickly the virus travels along the roads connecting Bunia, Goma, Kampala, and Nairobi.