Tuesday, September 4 2012 at 13:42
Medical officials in Kibaale district have registered two new suspected Ebola cases.
Gertrude Keneema (25) and her four-year child, Tidiya Birungi, were admitted to Kagadi Hospital isolation ward on Sunday afternoon with clinical symptoms similar to those of Ebola.
“They are admitted in an isolation ward at the hospital. They have received medication and they are stable,” the District health officer Dr Dan Kyamanywa told this newspaper on Tuesday.
He says medical experts then carried out investigations to establish whether they had come into contact with an Ebola patient.
“They do not have that history,” Dr Kyamanywa said.
The patients are residents of Kabuga LCI, Nyamacumu parish in Muhorro sub-county. Dr Kyamanywa says the two had fever, and were vomiting as well as passing blood. “We extracted a blood sample from them and sent it to the Uganda virus research institute for testing” Kyamanywa added.
The results had not been returned by press time.
The suspected cases come within the period health authorities say must elapse before the district is declared Ebola free. The incubation period for Ebola is around 21 days, and the district can only be declared Ebola free if no new case is reported after that period.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday said the outbreak could be coming to an end since no new confirmed cases have been reported since August 3, 2012.
The WHO stressed Monday that all probable and confirmed cases had been monitored for 21 days or more, adding that "the last confirmed case was discharged on August 24 ... following recovery". http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Two+new+suspected+Ebola+cases+reported+in+Kibaale/-/688334/1496028/-/11xejfc/-/index.html
