Uganda warns on contact as deadly Ebola reported in
capital
...The fatal case in Kampala was a health worker who
"had attended to the dead at Kagadi hospital" in Kibale, Health Minister
Christine Ondoa told reporters.
She is believed to have travelled independently to
Kampala -- possibly on public transport -- after her three-month old baby died,
Ondoa added.
Results of tests were still awaited, but it is "presumed" she died of
Ebola, said Dennis Lwamafa, Uganda's commissioner for disease
control.
"I appeal to you to first of all report all cases which appear to be like
Ebola, and these are high fever, vomiting, sometimes diarrhoea, and with
bleeding," Museveni added.
"When you handle this case well you can eliminate Ebola quickly."
According to experts, despite being extremely virulent the disease is
containable because it kills its victims faster than it can spread to new
ones.
It has a fatality ratio of between 23 and 90 percent, according to the World
Health Organisation (WHO).
Seven people suspected of having the virus have been isolated in
Kigadi hospital, Ondoa said.
The nearest death to the capital previously had been in May 2011 in Bombo, 35
kilometres (21 miles) from Kampala, a city of some 1.5 million people.
The rare haemorrhagic disease, named after a small river in DR Congo, killed
37 people in western Uganda in 2007 and at least 170 in the north of the country
in 2000.
However, Museveni said that the virus had not been immediately
identified this time, resulting in a delay.
"The bleeding which normally accompanies Ebola did not take place
initially among these patients," he said, adding that health workers at first
did not therefore realise what the problem was.
"Because of that delay the sickness spread."
Health officials said that the source of the outbreak had yet to be
confirmed but that the villages affected were located close to forests famous
for several species of primates.
"The site where most of the cases occurred are close to Kibale forest
where there are a lot of monkeys and birdlife," said WHO representative for
Uganda, Joaquim Saweka, adding that "so far the WHO does not recommend any
restriction of movement." http://reliefweb.int/report/uganda/uganda-warns-contact-deadly-ebola-reported-capital
