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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
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Orange County health officials are investigating a cluster of illnesses
linked to Walt Disney World's "Wild Africa Trek" experience,
a boutique tour in which small groups of people get up-close access to some of
the wildlife in Disney's Animal Kingdom and a catered meal served
on the theme park's manmade savannah.
Investigators have documented "several dozens of cases" of illnesses among guests who took the Disney tour in June and July, said Dain Weister, a spokesman for the Orange County Health Department.
The source of the illness remains a mystery.
"It appears to be some kind of stomach bug," Weister said. "It could be
food-borne, it could be water-borne, it could be something that's passed on
person-to-person, it could be something that's picked up by surface."
Disney has taken several precautionary steps, including "deep cleaning" various surfaces that guests touch, distributing more hand sanitizers, and re-emphasizing hand-washing policies to guests and employees.
"We are working closely with the Orange County Health Department to review the situation," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said...
The county Health Department was alerted to the outbreak on June 11. Weister said the agency immediately inspected the kitchen at Disney World where employees prepare the food served on the trek, but they found no problems.
....Investigators also began contacting guests who took the tour, beginning with those who did so during the first two weeks of June and the first week of July. A majority of the cases they found occurred during the first week in June, though a handful were also found in July, so investigators are now surveying people who took the tour in the latter half of June...
..One of those who posted said he or she was "extremely sick" by midnight the day after taking the tour, with vomiting that lasted for about five hours and pain, cramping and diarrhea that endured for more than a week. Another said his wife had to take him to the emergency room because of complications....
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-wild-africa-trek-illness-20120725,0,5555612.story
Investigators have documented "several dozens of cases" of illnesses among guests who took the Disney tour in June and July, said Dain Weister, a spokesman for the Orange County Health Department.
The source of the illness remains a mystery.
Disney has taken several precautionary steps, including "deep cleaning" various surfaces that guests touch, distributing more hand sanitizers, and re-emphasizing hand-washing policies to guests and employees.
"We are working closely with the Orange County Health Department to review the situation," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said...
The county Health Department was alerted to the outbreak on June 11. Weister said the agency immediately inspected the kitchen at Disney World where employees prepare the food served on the trek, but they found no problems.
....Investigators also began contacting guests who took the tour, beginning with those who did so during the first two weeks of June and the first week of July. A majority of the cases they found occurred during the first week in June, though a handful were also found in July, so investigators are now surveying people who took the tour in the latter half of June...
..One of those who posted said he or she was "extremely sick" by midnight the day after taking the tour, with vomiting that lasted for about five hours and pain, cramping and diarrhea that endured for more than a week. Another said his wife had to take him to the emergency room because of complications....
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-wild-africa-trek-illness-20120725,0,5555612.story