PRESS STATEMENT ON THE UPDATE ON EBOLA IN KIBAALE DISTRICT

UPDATE ON EBOLA IN KIBAALE DISTRICT

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE UPDATE ON EBOLA IN KIBAALE DISTRICT 30TH July 2011 MINISTRY OF HEALTH P. O. BOX 7272, KAMPALA - UGANDA PRESS STATEMENT ON THE UPDATE ON EBOLA IN KIBAALE DISTRICT The Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of Ebloa in Kibaale district on Saturday July 28th after receiving confirmatory results from the Uganda Virus Research Institute that the strange disease that had killed 14 people in the district was Ebola Hemorrhagic fever, Sudan strain. The announcement followed investigations after the Ministry received a report from Kibaale district health authorities on 11th July 2012 about the strange disease that was associated with death 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 10th July 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 Hospital and Central Public Health Laboratories of the Ministry of Health, Kampala. The report also noted that people were delaying to present themselves to seek for 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. The team carried out an eye balling exercise and verbal autopsy on the affected family. Between the 24th and 25th July 2012, detailed laboratory investigations were conducted at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.. http://www.mediacentre.go.ug/details.php?catId=3&item=1777