- Medical workers in Bundibugyo District have fled their
workplaces in fear of contracting the deadly Ebola virus. Elias Byamungu,
the Chief Administrative Officer, on Friday (30 Nov 2007) said medical
workers had abandoned patients in health units for fear of being infected.
"The health workers are terribly afraid," he said. Byamungu put
the death toll at 28.
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- Health authorities, however, last night (1 Dec 2007)
put the toll at 18, up from 16 registered by Thursday (29 Nov 2007). "We
have had 2 more deaths in the last 24 hours, and the disease continues
to spread," Dr. Sam Zaramba, the Director General of Health Services,
told Reuters. He said World Health Organisation (WHO) officials had teamed
up with local experts to draw up a strategy to contain the outbreak. More
than 50 people are also infected.
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- District health officials said 5 new cases were admitted
to Bundibugyo Hospital yesterday (1 Dec 2007). "We have set up isolation
wards where all those who have been diagnosed with Ebola have been quarantined
and are being monitored closely," Zaramba said.
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- The 1st victim died in August 2007, but the cause of
death was referred to as a "mysterious illness." Until Wednesday
(28 Nov 2007) when the health ministry and the WHO confirmed it as being
Ebola, the disease, which has ravaged 14 villages in the district, was
being described as "mysterious and strange." Zaramba said the
illness was confirmed as being Ebola following tests at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, US.
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- Speaking on the phone, Byamungu said among the infected
are 3 medical workers, including a doctor whom he identified only as Ssesanga,
who he said was critically ill. He said the disease started in Kikyo Parish,
Kasitu Sub-county and later spread to Ngamba Parish, Bundibugyo Town Council
and Bubukwanga Sub-county. The 1st death occurred after a group of residents
of Kikyo feasted on a goat in August 2007.
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- "There were accusations and counter-accusations
of witchcraft. Some people were even arrested until we discovered that
the problem was medical," Byamungu said. He expressed fear that the
disease could be incubating in the neighbouring districts of Kabarole and
Kasese, where infected people could have travelled. Residents of Kabarole
are in a state of panic, with many avoiding handshakes or being in crowed
places. Taxi drivers plying the Fort Portal-Bundibugyo route said they
were taking extra precautions. "We are not overloading our vehicles
so as to reduce body contact among passengers. We also do not accept to
transport visibly ill people," said one driver.
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- Ebola is spread through contact with the body fluids
of infected persons. This is the 2nd major Ebola outbreak in Uganda. The
last one occurred in 2000 in Bunyoro and in the north, killing over 140
people.
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- http://www.sundayvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCat
egoryId=7&newsCategoryId=123&newsId=600030
-
-
- News24.com 12-3-7
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- The Ebola outbreak that has killed 18 people in western
Uganda appears to be spreading, officials said on Sunday (2 Dec 2007),
as authorities examined a sample taken from a dead patient in the south
of the country. Government officials told AFP that the disease, which flared
in September (2007), had spread to 3 new zones in the impoverished Bundibugyo
district near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
-
- Virologists were meanwhile examining a sample taken from
a suspected victim who died overnight in the Mbarara region, 160 km southeast
of the affected district. Health officials said several dozen medics and
support staff had fled Bundibugyo when their co-workers became infected
with the virus in an outbreak that has already killed 18 people and infected
61.
-
- Virologists were also investigating an isolated patient
in the neighboring Port Portale district as well as the fatality in Mbarara.
"There are fears that the disease has spread," said a top health
ministry official who requested to remain unnamed. "We are waiting
for the results from the samples," he said of the 2 cases that have
spread panic in the east African nation. The disease, which is fatal in
90 percent of cases, is spread by contact with body fluids, primarily blood.
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- Meanwhile, epidemiologists and virologists are in Bundibugyo
district to try to trace backwards the source of the virus as part of a
campaign to avoid future outbreaks. Authorities say the outbreak was an
unknown strain, after analysis was done on tissue samples at the laboratories
of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Known
Ebola sub-types usually attack capillaries and blood vessel linings, draining
the body of blood through openings, leaving the patient to die in shock,
doctors say. But the new Uganda subtype, which provokes high fever, kills
victims without much loss of blood.
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- http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2231444,00.html
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- ____
-
- Communicated by ProMED-mail
-
- More information about this new epidemic of Ebola fever
is unfolding. The 1st case dates back to August 2007 and has been associated
circumstantially with feasting on goat meat. Hemorrhage is not a prominent
feature of the disease. The outbreak in the Bundibugyo District is extending
and now involves at least 14 villages. The death toll now stands at 18,
and the number of cases is now 61. An as yet unconfirmed case has appeared
at a location 160 km to the south. The epidemic situation is fluid, and
new cases may begin to appear outside the Bundibugyo District. -
Mod.CP
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- An interactive map of the Bundibugyo region of Western
Uganda can be accessed at:
- http://www.maplandia.com/uganda/bundibugyo/.
-
- 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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