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Over 4,000 Ebola Suspects Under Watch
The health workers in the northern Ugandan district of Gulu are monitoring over 4,000 suspects who have had contact with Ebola victims, the New Vision newspaper reported on Monday, December 11.
District director of health services Paul Onek was quoted as saying that some of the suspects were being "followed up" in neighboring districts.
"It is a very difficult task to trace the suspects in their homes. All these need money and ambulances which are not enough," Onek said.
He said the district was spending 45 million Uganda shillings (25,000 US dollars) every week in the fight against the dreaded epidemic which struck the country two months ago.
Up to date, 468 people have contracted the disease, and 142 of them have died in Gulu, Onek said, adding that in Uganda, Ebola had taken longer than previous outbreaks in other countries.
The Ebola epidemic broke out in Gulu in September. The Ebola cases have been reported in Gulu, Mbarara and Masindi districts, and the death toll has risen to 160 people in the country.
Ebola was first identified in 1976 in parts of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It struck the southern Sudan again in 1979, and in 1995 it hit Kikwit in DRC, killing over 300 people.
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