- Uganda has 113 suspected cases of a new strain of Ebola
fever that has killed 29 people, officials said on Monday, vowing to take
the necessary steps to stop the virus spreading. Ugandans fear the outbreak
could mushroom into a major epidemic affecting the capital Kampala.
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- "We have an Ebola lab in Entebbe (near Uganda's
international airport) where we are testing samples we took from suspected
cases," Health Ministry spokesman Paul Kabwa said.
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- Some banks and supermarkets in the city issued their
staff with protective rubber gloves for handling money they feared could
be contaminated with the virus, which often causes victims to bleed to
death through ears, eyes and other orifices.
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- All cases so far have been in western Uganda's Bundibugyo
district, bordering Democratic Republic of the Congo, except a doctor from
the region who went to the capital after treating patients and died soon
afterwards in a Kampala hospital.
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- "I'm very worried," said Valentine Oketcho,
25, who hands out fliers for restaurants in a Kampala shopping mall. "It's
terrible, it's killing people in less than a week. This is worse than AIDS.
At least you can survive AIDS for some years."
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- Others said the government should declare a state of
emergency, although it has said it is on top of the epidemic.
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- The outbreak, which started in August, has sparked panic
among officials, health workers and the public. A fifth health worker was
among the latest dead, officials said.
- Kampala was rife with rumours of two Ebola deaths in
the city over the weekend, including a man who collapsed in the street,
although Kabwa said neither fitted the definition of a suspected Ebola
case.
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- The affected region borders Democratic Republic of the
Congo, where the Ebola river gave the virus its name after some of the
first cases were recorded in its valley in 1976.
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- "If it can do all this in Bundibugyo, it could spread
further, even Kampala," said Amira Hussein, who runs a gift shop.
"So now in addition to malaria, AIDS, plague and all the rest, we
have Ebola. Are we unlucky?"
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- The last Ebola outbreak in Uganda was in 2000, when 425
people caught it and more than half died.
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- http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=105367
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- 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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