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WHO Confirms First Outbreak of Ebola in Uganda
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the first outbreak of Ebola in northern Uganda and is coordinating an international response to the control of the disease.
Laboratory testing carried out at the National Institute of Virology in South Africa indicates that the cause of the outbreak is the Ebola virus, according to a WHO press release here Monday. These are the first cases of Ebola ever reported in Uganda.
As of October 16, WHO said, 71 suspected cases, including 35 deaths, have been reported. Cases were first reported in a local hospital in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu and are now occurring in the community.
WHO said that it is supporting the Ugandan ministry of health and a national task force for the Ebola control established by the ministry by coordinating the international response to the outbreak, implementing disease control measures such as barrier nursing procedures, finding cases, tracing contacts and monitoring them, and supplying protective equipment.
Ebola haemorrhagic fever is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50 to 90 percent of cases. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected persons.
The Ebola virus was identified in 1976 in the western equatorial province of Sudan and in the nearby region of Yambuku, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire).
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