http://redpepper.co.ug/welcome/?p=41626
Up to 90% of those who contract
Ebola die from the virus
http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201273010541595799
Ebola in Uganda
29 July 2012
The Ministry of Health (MoH) of Uganda has notified WHO of an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Kibaale district in the western part of the country.
A total of 20 cases, including 14 deaths have been reported since the beginning of July 2012.
The index case was identified in a family from Nyanswiga village, Nyamarunda sub-county of Kibaale district, where nine of the deaths were recorded.
The deceased include a clinical officer who attended to a patient, and her four month-old child. Nine of the 14 deaths have occurred in a single household.
Laboratory confirmation was done by the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe.
Currently, two patients are hospitalized and are in stable condition.
The first is a 38 year-old female who attended to her sister, the clinical officer who died. She was admitted to the hospital on 26 July 2012.
The second is a 30 year-old female who participated in conducting the burial of the index case. She was admitted to the hospital on 23 July 2012.
Both cases were admitted to hospital with fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Neither of the cases has so far shown bleeding, a symptom that often appears in viral haemorrhagic fever patients.
The MoH is working with stakeholders and partners to control the outbreak.
Response plans at the national and district levels are being finalised.
A national task force coordinated by the MoH has been re-activated at the MOH headquarters and holds daily meetings. In Kibaale a district task force has been formed to better coordinate field response. The neighbouring districts have been put on high alert about the outbreak and to step up surveillance.
A team of experts from MoH, WHO and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is in Kibaale to support the response operations. All possible contacts that were exposed to the suspected and confirmed cases since 6 July 2012 are being identified for active follow up. The necessary supplies and logistics required for supportive management of patients are being mobilized.
Kibaale hospital has established a temporary isolation ward for suspected, probable and confirmed cases. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Holland, has mobilized necessary requirements for setting up isolation centre at the hospital. The MoH and Mulago Hospital have mobilized some staff to manage the isolation centre but more are urgently needed.
The MoH has advised the public to take measures to avert the spread of the disease and to report any suspected patient to the nearest health unit.
WHO does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions are applied to Uganda.
Twenty-four new cases of EV-71 have been reported by executive health centres in Battambang province for the month of July alone, with three of the patients in a serious condition requiring hospitalisation, health officials said yesterday.
Meas Maisak, chief of Sampov Loun district health centre and deputy chief of Sampov executive district health office, said that 24 children between one and 10 years of age, had symptoms of EV-71 in Sampov Loun, Phnom Phrek and Kam Rieng districts.
Previously, the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization have said that recorded EV-71 fatalities and cases have emerged from south and central Cambodia.
“They have rashes and blisters on arms, legs and mouth, with a high fever, but none of them have died,” Maisak said.
“We are paying much attention to them,” he said. However, he added that three of them were in serious condition, with fevers between 38 degrees and 40 degrees, and were sent to Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap last week.
“[The other cases] have been quarantined, but some returned home after getting treatment, because we do not have enough space for them [at the executive health centre],” Maisak said.
Chea Kimnieng, health officer at Sampov executive district health office, said that people are aware of the disease in the wake of a public announcement.
“We urge parents to hurry to send their children to health centres when they suspect the disease,” he said.
WHO country director Pieter Van Maaren told the Post this week that while EV-71 has been known since 1969, testing for the virus had not occurred in Cambodia before the recent unexplained child deaths.
As investigations continue, the case fatality ratio – currently 56 deaths out of a now 85 case tally – will drop as more non-fatal cases are recorded, Van Maaren said.While the official describes symptoms that could be hand-foot-mouth disease, I notice that no one uses the term—perhaps because Dr. Beat Richner does not concur with the diagnosis offered by WHO. http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2012/07/cambodia-more-cases-of-ev71-reported-in-battambang.html
|
| ||||||||
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -- The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14
people in western Uganda this month, Ugandan health officials said on Saturday,
ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many
people fleeing their homes.
The officials and a World Health Organization representative
told a news conference in Kampala Saturday that there is "an outbreak of Ebola"
in Uganda.
"Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research
Institute...have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is
indeed Ebola hemorrhagic fever," the Ugandan government and WHO said in joint
statement....
..Kibaale is a district in midwestern Uganda, where people in
recent weeks have been troubled by a mysterious illness that seemed to have come
from nowhere. Ugandan health officials had been stumped as well, and spent weeks
conducting laboratory tests that were at first inconclusive.
On Friday, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda,
told The Associated Press that investigators were "not so sure" it was Ebola,
and a Ugandan health official dismissed the possibility of Ebola as merely a
rumor. It appears firm evidence of Ebola was clinched overnight.
Health officials told reporters in Kampala that the 14 dead
were among 20 reported with the disease. Two of the infected have been isolated
for examination by researchers and health officials. A clinical officer and,
days later, her 4-month-old baby died from the disease caused by the Ebola
virus, officials said.
Officials urged Ugandans to be calm, saying a national
emergency taskforce had been set up to stop the disease from spreading far and
wide...
The challenge, he said, was retaining the services of all
the nurses and doctors who are being asked to risk their lives in order to look
after the sick.
"Their lives are at stake," he said.
Officials also worry that other villagers suffering from
other diseases might be afraid to visit the hospital for fear of catching Ebola,
he said. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_UGANDA_EBOLA_OUTBREAK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
|
| 2012-07-27 15:18:07 |
