- KAMPALA (SAPA - AFP) -- The
Ebola virus has killed two doctors in western Uganda, bringing the death
toll to 21 of the 91 people infected since the strain first appeared in
September, an official said on Wednesday.
- "The sad news is that our doctor who was admitted
in Mulago died last night and a senior clinic officer who had been in critical
condition died this morning," said Samuel Kazinga, district commissioner
for Bundibugyo, the epicentre of the new outbreak.
-
- Kampala's Mulago hospital is the largest in the country.
Some health officials have said that a lack of appropriate equipment in
Mulago and other hospitals has allowed the virus to spread.
-
- Ebola has infected 91 people so far, the health ministry
announced in a statement.
-
- Of those still alive, 36 remain in health centres in
Bundibugyo and Kyikyo area, the statement said.
-
- The health ministry confirmed the latest fatalities caused
by the virulent local strain of Ebola, which kills up to 90 percent of
its victims, mostly by puncturing blood vessels and triggering non-stop
haemorrhage.
-
- Eight pathogen experts from the Atlanta-based Centres
for Disease Control (CDC) arrived in the country on Tuesday to help battle
the mysterious strain with scant history.
-
- Efforts to isolate suspected patients in the rural district
neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have failed as many
residents fear hospitals are unsafe, authorities have said.
-
- Effectively, this has scuppered efforts to compile exact
figures, officials said.
-
- The rare disease, named after a small DRC river, killed
at least 170 people in northern Uganda in 2000, with experts blaming poor
sanitation and hygiene.
-
- It was first discovered in the DRC in 1976, but other
outbreaks have been recorded in Ivory Coast and Gabon.
-
- At the same time the government had deployed health officials
to the country's north-western and northern region to deal with fears of
extremely contagious cholera, plague, meningitis and hepatitis outbreaks.
-
-
- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Africa&set_id=1&
click_id=68&art_id=nw20071205225617382C714527
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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