Uganda reels from outbreaks
2007-12-07 07:23
Kampala - Multiple outbreaks - excluding Ebola - have killed at least 33 people in Uganda in the past three weeks, straining the country's health facilities, an official said on Thursday.
The extremely contagious cholera, plague, meningitis and hepatitis outbreaks are wending through the country's western and northwestern regions, leaving hundreds of infections, health ministry spokesperson Paul Kaggwa told AFP.
Cholera has killed 12 of the 569 cases in western Hoima and northwestern Nebbi district. Plague has killed 19 of the 139 cases in Nebbi and north-western Arua district.
Hepatitis has killed two of the 32 cases in northern Kitgum district while no one has died of the 255 meningitis cases in Arus district, Kaggwa added.
The new fatalities were announced as health teams were battling another stubborn microbe: Ebola, a blood-borne disease with up to 90% fatality and whose mutation has stunned scientists.
Ebola broke out in September in western Bundibugyo district and has killed 22 of the 93 infected people as the microbe meanders through the region, where sterile techniques are rare, thus making hospitals unsafe.
The new outbreak was spurred by an unknown type of Ebola that kills its victims without the disease's trademark haemorrhage from all body orifices.
Kenya issues alert
Meanwhile Kenya has issued an alert for Ebola, a report said on Friday.
Health Minister Paul Sang said there were no reports of the disease in the country, whose common frontier with Uganda is unpatrolled and pastoralists criss-cross unmonitored.
"We are receiving regular updates on the disease but I would like to reassure Kenyans that the situation is currently under control," Sang was quoted as saying by the Daily Nation newspaper.
"At this stage, I would like to request any person suffering from sudden vomiting, diarrhoea, headache and nausea to seek immediate treatment in hospital," Sang said.
Unlike known Ebola strains that puncture blood capillaries and veins, triggering signature non-stop bleeding, the new strain kills after provoking high fever, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and headache.
As medical detectives search for clues on its source in Uganda, there are fears that the mysterious strain might slip into Kenya through cross-border movement of travellers and pastoralists.
Unlike Uganda where Ebola killed at least 170 people in 2000, Kenya has never had a brush with the disease, whose recent mutation has stunned scientists.