Uganda: Three dead in new Ebola outbreak
The Ministry of Health (MoH) of Uganda has notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Luweero district in Central Uganda, according to a WHO Global Alert and Response issued Nov. 17.
This new outbreak comes about 6 weeks after the Ebola outbreak in Kibaale district was declared over.
In the current outbreak, four cases, including 3 fatal, have been reported.
Two samples from the victims were confirmed positive for Ebola virus (species Sudan).
The Ministry of Health, WHO and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have sent a team to conduct preliminary investigation into the outbreak. Health authorities are conducting active case search and tracing close contacts of the confirmed and probable cases.
The isolation facility at Mulago hospital in Kampala is reactivated and another isolation facility at Nyimbwa Health Center IV at the epicenter is being established.
Seven close contacts of the cases have developed symptoms and are being isolated in the isolation facilities.
Uganda is also battling a Marburg hemorrhagic fever outbreak, which was officially declared on Oct. 19.
As of 28 October 2012, a total of 18 cases and 9 deaths, including a health worker, have been reported from five districts namely Kabale district, in south-western Uganda, Kampala (the capital city), Ibanda, Mbarara and Kabarole. Nine of the cases are laboratory confirmed.
Some key facts about Ebola hemorrhagic fever include:
- The Ebola virus causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) outbreaks in humans.
- Viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
- Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
- The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
- Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
- There is no treatment or vaccine available for either people or animals.
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[…] recent months, Uganda has experienced outbreaks of Ebola in Kibaale and Luweero districts where dozens were killed, and a Marburg outbreak, also in the Kibaale […]
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