5-year-old first cross-border victim of Ebola to die

KASINDI, Congo — A 5-year-old boy vomiting blood became the first cross-border victim in the current Ebola outbreak on Wednesday, while his 3-year-old brother and grandmother tested positive for the disease that has killed nearly 1,400 people in Congo.

The outbreak’s spread into Uganda prompted the World Health Organization to revisit whether the second-largest Ebola epidemic in history should be declared a global health emergency. A WHO expert committee meets on Friday. Such declarations almost always boost attention and donor funding.

The boy’s mother had taken him and his brother from Uganda into Congo, where her father was ill. WHO said he died of Ebola, and officials believe those who mourned him became infected, too.

The family then crossed back into Uganda via an unguarded foot path, bypassing official border crossings where health workers have been screening millions of travelers since the outbreak was declared in August.

Authorities in both countries now vow to step up border security.

Experts have long feared Ebola could spread to neighboring countries because of rebel attacks and community resistance hampering containment work in eastern Congo, one of the world’s most turbulent regions. The virus can spread quickly via close contact with bodily fluids of those infected and can be fatal in up to 90 percent of cases.

The 5-year-old boy’s mother and grandmother, along with several other children, were stopped at a border post before crossing into Uganda.

Congo’s health ministry said those 12 were put in an isolation center, but in fact they were told to remain where they were staying until transport was found to an Ebola treatment unit, Dr. Dominique Kabongo, a local coordinator of response teams, told The Associated Press.