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Ebola spreading in Uganda?
08/12/2007 10:23 - (SA)
Kampala - An Ebola patient died in western Uganda on Friday, bringing the toll to 23, an official said, amid fears that the virulent strain had spread to the eastern part of the country.
The patient died in Bundibugyo district, home to 250 000 people and the outbreak's epicentre where hundreds are under observation for possible infection, said Sam Okware, a health ministry official heading the battle against the disease.
"So far the strain has infected 104, of which 23 have died," Okware said, adding that signs of the deadly microbe, which first surfaced in Bundibugyo in September, had appeared near Lake Victoria and a district of the country's eastern region near the Kenyan border.
"We are investigating cases in Mbale (near the Kenyan border), where one man has died and in Masaka (near Lake Victoria), where two fishermen have symptoms similar to those of Ebola," he added.
The health ministry said teams were also probing cases in western Kanungu and Kasese districts and north-western Adjuman district for possible Ebola infections.
The Atlanta-based US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has set up a laboratory to bolster the Uganda Virus Research Institute "in diagnosis and analysis of samples," the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement.
"Specimens from suspected cases are being collected and referred for confirmation as part of intensive surveillance activities," the statement explained.
Isolation
Isolation wards have been established in Bundibugyo and Kikyo hospitals in the region while healthcare and auxiliary staff are being trained on effective measures to help stem the nightmarish microbe, the WHO said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has also weighed in, advising people to refrain from shaking hands, state media reported. Some affected districts have also banned discotheques and public video halls to reduce human contact.
Meanwhile authorities have mobilised radio stations and mobile films to reach out to risky communities while posters, brochures and factsheets are being distributed in the Ebola zone.
The public is being educated on burial practices to avoid infections, as in Sudan's 1976 and 1979 outbreaks when several villagers contracted the strain during ceremonies that involved body contact.
Similar deaths were recorded in the 1996 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among volunteers who offered to bury the dead.
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