Ebola Reported In Kampala As Medic Dies In Mulago
By Nicholas Mwesigwa:
A clinical officer who attended to suspected Ebola patients at Kagadi Hospital has died in Mulago Hospital after being referred there.
Sources identified the clinical officer as Clare Muhumuza who died on the evening of Friday within a few hours of being admitted. Muhumuza’s four month old baby, Milca Ninsima, is also reported to have died.
“The clinical officer died in Mulago. The disease is contagious like you know so we urge people to be cautious and if one develops any signs please rush to the hospital,” Ondoa said on phone. Doctors at Mulago however couldn’t comment when contacted citing sensitivity of the matter.
The shocking revelation was made by Minster of Health Christine Ondoa while addressing scribes Ebola outbreak last week in Kibaale District.
The Minister said that Mulago Hospital is in the process of reactivating its isolation camp to cater for any reported cases in Kampala and neighbouring districts.
However she said no case of Ebola has been registered in Kampala city and its suburbs.
The Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of Ebloa in Kibaale on Saturday after receiving confirmatory results from the Uganda Virus Research Institute that 14 people in the district had succumbed to Ebola Hemorrhagic fever, Sudan strain.
The announcement came after the Ministry received a report from Kibaale district health authorities on July 11, 2012 of the strange disease in Nyanswiga LCI in Nyamarunda Parish of Nyamarunda subcounty, Kibaale district.
The report had indicated that the patients presented with the common symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting and fever. It indicated that by July 10, 2012, despite many of the patients having received treatment from Emesco HCIII, Mugarama HCIII, Kagadi Hospital and St Ambrose, 10 of them had died.
It further indicated that initial samples of blood and stool taken from the sick did not yield any positive findings in the laboratories in Kagadi.
The report also noted that people were delaying to present themselves to seek treatment, partly because they believed that the cause of the illness was due to “evil spirits”.
This caused civil strife among the community requiring Police intervention to quell the animosity.
In response to this report, a team from the Ministry of Health was dispatched to do a quick assessment of the outbreak and give direction for further measures to be taken.
Between July 24 and 25, 2012, detailed laboratory investigations were conducted at the Uganda Virus Research Institute and confirmed that the “Strange Disease” was Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Sudan strain. Three samples taken from the dead confirmed Ebola to be present in their biological specimen.
Govt Bans Physical Contact
Meanwhile government has banned physical contact following reports a medic had died of Ebola in Kampala.
“The Ministry of Health are tracing all the people who have had contact with the victims,” Yoweri Museveni said in a state broadcast this afternoon.
“Ebola spreads by contact when you contact each other physically… avoid shaking of hands that can cause contact through sweat, which can cause problems,” Museveni said.
Elsewhere, a number of schools in Buyaga County have been closed following the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
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