Ebola outbreak is now the second-largest on record as Kenya's cases reach three: Health risk update, Oct. 9–16, 2026
This week's official updates cover the Ebola outbreak becoming the second-largest on record as Kenya's cases reach three, U.S. measles passing 4,410, two yellow fever notices for Ghana and Colombia, and four recalls including a raw-milk cheddar pulled over E. coli.
Between October 9 and 16, 2026, the CDC, the World Health Organization and the FDA moved eleven items in front of US households, travelers and clinical teams. Eight of them carry a decision for someone reading this page.
The week's signal
WHO's African regional office counted 9,066 confirmed cases and 4,381 confirmed deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as of October 11, a crude case fatality ratio of 48.3%. That week added 463 cases and 233 deaths, and the outbreak now reaches 65 health zones across seven provinces, after Dakwa in Bas-Uélé became the newest. Ituri province still carries 73.8% of the confirmed cases. 1
CDC counted 9,300 confirmed cases and 4,481 confirmed deaths across the Congo, Kenya, Uganda and France as of October 14. CDC now describes this as the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record. 2
Kenya confirmed its second and third cases on October 14 and 16. Both patients, a 39-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman, are close family members of Kenya's first case, and both were already in quarantine when they fell ill. Kenya has now recorded three cases and one death, and its Ministry of Health reports that all three trace back to the first, imported case. 3
By October 16, 127 of the 130 contacts listed by the Ministry were in quarantine under daily temperature and symptom checks for 21 days. WHO handed over supplies worth about US$ 70,000, including protective equipment, testing kits and infrared thermometers, and nearly 5,000 health workers have been trained on the disease since May. 3
The United States passed 4,410 confirmed measles cases in 2026 as of October 15, up 330 in a week. Hospitalizations reached 451, about one in ten cases, and CDC counts two deaths. 4
Pennsylvania, the year's largest outbreak, reported 1,260 cases across 43 counties, 238 hospitalizations and five measles-associated deaths on October 16. The state is reviewing a sixth death, in Franklin County, against its measles-associated death definition. 5
CDC reviewed two yellow fever notices on October 16. Ghana's Upper West Region gets a new Level 2 notice after the country declared an outbreak there, and Colombia's Level 2 notice was reviewed with vaccination now recommended in newly affected areas. 67
On the food and drug side, a New York dairy recalled a raw mild cheddar after Maryland inspectors isolated two Shiga toxin-producing E. coli strains from a sample, a Brooklyn distributor widened a Listeria recall to a second smoked-salmon product, and a hospital blood thinner was pulled for visible particles. 8910
Actions for households, travelers, and clinical teams
| Alert | Who should act | What to do now |
|---|---|---|
| Family Farmstead raw mild cheddar | Anyone with the cheese at home, and shoppers in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts | Stop eating Family Farmstead Dairy Raw Mild Cheddar Cheese, lot code and best-by 7/22/27. A Maryland sample of the company's 8-ounce raw cheddar isolated E. coli O26:H11 and O45:H2; both strains cause bloody diarrhea, and young children and older adults can develop kidney failure. Discard it or return it for a refund. Questions: (607) 397-4044. 8 |
| Starfish Seafood cold smoked Norwegian salmon | Shoppers in New York, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio | Check the vacuum-sealed 227 g / 8 oz pack of STARFISH SEAFOOD PREMIUM COLD SMOKED NORWEGIAN SALMON SLICED. Recalled lot: UPC 4751048940099, lot D080-148, best before 27.11.2027, packed in Latvia. New York State's agriculture department found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample. Return it for a full refund. Questions: (718) 858-6720. 9 |
| Argatroban Injection 250 mg/2.5 mL | Hospital pharmacies and clinical teams holding the drug | Quarantine the recalled vials and check the NDC: 42023-182-01 or 42023-182-89. Par Health recalled 22 lots to the hospital level after finding particles of cellulose, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, stopper material and possibly stainless steel. Injected particles can block blood vessels. The lots went to wholesalers and hospitals nationwide between December 30, 2024 and May 5, 2026. Returns go through Inmar: 1-855-648-7909. 10 |
| Para Bien Al Grano | Sesame-allergic households in Puerto Rico | Read the box. Pan Pepin recalled seven lots of Para Bien Al Grano, 24 oz, UPC 0 21425 01513 4, with sell-by dates from October 12 to October 21, 2026. Sesame is present but missing from the label, and an allergic person can react severely. Return it or throw it out. Questions: 787-403-7363. 11 |
| Ebola travel and entry rules | Anyone whose itinerary includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda or South Sudan | Travelers who have been in the Congo within 21 days of their flight may not board commercial flights to the United States, including passengers with an intermediate stop there. US citizens and nationals should plan to stay outside the Congo for 21 days before entering the country. Anyone who was in Uganda or South Sudan, and not in the Congo, must enter through designated airports for screening. CDC advises avoiding all travel to Ituri and Nord-Kivu, avoiding nonessential travel to Haut-Uélé and Tshopo, and taking enhanced precautions in the rest of the Congo and in Uganda. These rules carried over unchanged from last week. 2 |
| Pennsylvania measles | Residents and visitors across Pennsylvania, and anyone whose MMR records are incomplete | Confirm two documented MMR doses, which protect for life. The state reported 1,260 cases, 238 hospitalizations and five deaths on October 16. Infants aged 6 through 11 months who live in or travel to counties with sustained community transmission can get an early dose, and children who receive it still need both routine doses later. Anyone with fever plus cough, runny nose or red watery eyes should stay home and call 877-PA-HEALTH (877-724-3258) before going to a clinic. 5 |
| Wisconsin measles, including a new Rock County cluster | Residents of Rock County and of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette and Vernon counties | Check immunity through the Wisconsin Immunization Registry or a provider. Wisconsin reported 288 cases statewide on October 16: 258 confirmed and 6 probable in the four-county southwest outbreak, 5 probable cases in Rock County that are linked to each other with no source identified, 11 in Chippewa County and 6 in Marathon County. Measles virus was last detected in wastewater from Lafayette County on October 6. 12 |
| Yellow fever in Ghana and Colombia | Travelers to Ghana's Upper West Region or to Colombia, especially Tolima | Get vaccinated at least 10 days before travel and prevent mosquito bites. Not every clinic carries yellow fever vaccine, so book early, and the vaccine is not suitable for some people, so discuss it with a provider. A booster may be offered to certain travelers or to anyone whose last dose was 10 years ago who will be in a higher-risk setting. Seek care for fever, chills, headache, backache or muscle aches during or after travel, and keep preventing bites for five days after symptoms start. 67 |
How to read this week's counts
Every number above is a report count, not a record of infections caught that week. WHO's weekly Ebola report adds each week's newly confirmed cases to a running total, so the 463 cases it logged for the week ending October 11 include people who fell ill earlier and whose samples were confirmed in that week. The Congo's ministry also leaves probable cases out of its official count and has set suspected cases aside pending investigation. 1
The two agencies' totals also sit three days apart. WHO's figures run to October 11 and cover the Congo and Uganda; CDC's run to October 14 and fold in Kenya and France. Compare a single agency against itself from week to week rather than mixing the two. 12
Measles works the same way, and the last few weeks on CDC's chart are the most incomplete. The week starting October 11 shows 50 cases because most of that week's cases have not been confirmed and entered yet; earlier weeks on this page have risen after publication. Read the shape of the year rather than the final bar. 4
Travel health: two yellow fever notices, reviewed October 16
Ghana's notice is new, and it names one region: the Upper West Region, where the country has declared an outbreak. 6
Colombia's notice was already standing, and the October 16 review keeps it at Level 2. Most of Colombia's cases are in Tolima, including areas that border the zones where vaccination has long been recommended; travelers to those newly affected areas are now advised to get vaccinated. CDC's map for Colombia shows which departments that covers. 7
The rest of the notice list dates from earlier weeks: global polio from September 23, global dengue from October 2, and the three Ebola notices from August. 13
Vaccine, clinical and alert notes
The US routine vaccination schedule is unchanged. CDC's ACIP recommendations page still shows August 8, 2025 as its last update. 14
An MMWR report published October 15 measured how well the pertussis vaccine worked during Alaska's 2024 outbreak. Among children aged 6 months to 6 years, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 96.2% for those who had completed the three-dose DTaP series, and 85.3% for those who had one or two doses. Unvaccinated children had roughly 26 times the odds of laboratory-confirmed pertussis as fully vaccinated children. That is the series given at 2, 4 and 6 months, with boosters at 15 to 18 months and again at 4 to 6 years. 15
The same MMWR issue describes the US Virgin Islands' first dengue outbreak in about a decade: 263 confirmed cases between January 2024 and June 2025, 15 hospitalizations, and one death, the territory's first dengue-associated death since 2005. Almost all of the patients had not traveled in the two weeks before they fell ill, so this was local transmission. For travelers, dengue prevention is mosquito-bite prevention. 16
WHO posted one Disease Outbreak News item in this window. On October 10 it reported the death of a laboratory worker at an antiplague institute in Irkutsk, Russia, from pneumonia of undetermined etiology, after media reports raised pneumonic plague as a possibility. Russian authorities told WHO that they found no plague and no other high-threat pathogens in the patient or in the contacts they tested, and WHO found no evidence of ongoing transmission. WHO says the cause of the fatal illness remains undetermined and continues to monitor. 17
On the clinical alert side, CDC's Health Alert Network archive still shows the rabies post-exposure advisory of September 10, 2026 as its newest notice, and nothing was added in this window. 18
State measles picture
Pennsylvania's curve has flattened well below its summer peak but is still climbing. The state added 38 cases in the two days before October 16, and 4 of this year's 1,260 cases have been in vaccinated people, under 1% of the total. 5
Wisconsin's statewide total rose to 288, and the reason is a new cluster rather than the old one. Five probable cases in Rock County, in the state's south, are linked to each other but with no source identified and no connection to the four-county southwest outbreak. Marathon and Chippewa counties in the north each trace their cases to out-of-state travel. 12
Utah, the country's third-largest state outbreak this year, counted 527 cases for 2026 and reported no new cases in the previous three weeks. Its last dashboard update was October 13. 19
Food safety: what is still open
FDA's investigators moved four case counts and started sampling on a fifth. The multi-ingredient chicken wrap outbreak behind the E. coli O157:H7 investigation rose from 38 to 50 cases, and a Listeria investigation with no product identified yet rose from 44 to 46. FDA began collecting samples in a separate Listeria investigation and in the raw-milk cheese investigation. 20
The raw-milk cheese advisory was updated on October 9 to add international distribution: the recalled Sierra Nevada Graziers cheeses also went to the Republic of Korea. That outbreak stands at 13 illnesses, 8 hospitalizations and 3 cases of kidney failure across nine states, with the last illness beginning August 26. These cheeses keep for a long time, so check the refrigerator and freezer. 21
The sprout investigation now covers four seed brands. Gardeners Basics, Eden Brothers and Home Grown broccoli seeds all trace back to supplier lot W4105, where FDA's whole genome sequencing matched a positive seed sample to the outbreak strain. The outbreak stands at 32 illnesses, 3 hospitalizations and no deaths across six states, with the last illness beginning September 3. The recalled seeds were sold nationwide, including on Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy and TikTok Shop. 22
The Cyclospora investigation that began with iceberg lettuce moved from 235 to 240 cases. FDA closed one outbreak, a Salmonella Oranienburg investigation with no product identified, and moved three more to its closed table: shell eggs, moringa leaf powder, and infant formula linked to botulism. 20
This week's checklist
- Check the refrigerator for raw mild cheddar with lot and best-by 7/22/27, and for the Starfish Seafood cold smoked Norwegian salmon with lot D080-148. Neither should be eaten.
- Bring MMR records up to date. Two documented doses last a lifetime, and the households in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Utah face the highest local risk this year.
- Traveling to Ghana's Upper West Region or to Colombia? Book yellow fever vaccination now, because it needs 10 days before departure to work.
- Booking a route through the Congo, Uganda or South Sudan? Read the 21-day entry restrictions before you buy the ticket.
- Hospital and clinic teams: pull the Argatroban lots from the shelf while the recall is open.
- Keep infants on the DTaP schedule. The 96.2% effectiveness figure this week came from a state outbreak where most sick children were unvaccinated.
References
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- 13CDC, Travel Health Notices
wwwnc.cdc.gov
- 14CDC, ACIP Recommendations
cdc.gov
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