Nine new Ebola cases reported in Uganda

Uganda has reported nine more Ebola cases in the capital, Kampala, bringing the total number of known infections to 14 in the last two days, the health minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said in a tweet on Monday, October 24. Minister Aceng confirmed this through a tweet, saying that on Sunday, nine individuals were confirmed in Kampala bringing the total number of cases to 14 in the last 48 hours. She mentioned that the nine cases are contacts of the fatal case who came from Kassanda district and passed on in Mulago Hospital. Aceng added that seven family members are from Masanafu and one health worker who managed him in a private clinic together with his wife from Seguku. “Fellow Ugandans, let’s be vigilant. Report yourself if you have had contact or know of a person who has had contact, let’s cooperate to end Ebola,” she said in a tweet. Aceng did not say whether these nine had been isolated before they tested positive. The five previous cases in Kampala, which Aceng announced over the weekend, had been isolated at Mulago Hospital. Speaking to the New Times, Edson Rwagasore, the Division Manager, Public Health Surveillance and Emergency Preparedness and Response said that, “we haven't identified any case in Rwanda but we still have to enhance our surveillance at health facilities and Point of entry level.” He said that this is being done from the community level, with about 60,000 health community workers contributing to the preparedness activities. He added that from more than 70 samples taken among people who meet the case definition of travel history and any of the symptoms including fever, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhoea or bleeding, tested negative for Ebola. The virus that is circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain that spread during recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak began in September in a rural part of central Uganda. It spread earlier this month to Kampala, a city of more than 1.6 million people, by a man who had come from the Kassanda district to seek medical treatment and later died. There have been more than 90 confirmed and probable cases in Uganda since the start of the outbreak, including at least 44 deaths, according to statements by the health ministry and the World Health Organization. Ebola generally kills about half of the people it infects and spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Its symptoms include intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Uganda has reported nine more Ebola cases in the capital, Kampala, bringing the total number of known infections to 14 in the last two days, the health minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said in a tweet on Monday, October 24. Minister Aceng confirmed this through a tweet, saying that on Sunday, nine individuals were confirmed in Kampala bringing the total number of cases to 14 in the last 48 hours. She mentioned that the nine cases are contacts of the fatal case who came from Kassanda district and passed on in Mulago Hospital. Aceng added that seven family members are from Masanafu and one health worker who managed him in a private clinic together with his wife from Seguku. “Fellow Ugandans, let’s be vigilant. Report yourself if you have had contact or know of a person who has had contact, let’s cooperate to end Ebola,” she said in a tweet. Aceng did not say whether these nine had been isolated before they tested positive. The five previous cases in Kampala, which Aceng announced over the weekend, had been isolated at Mulago Hospital. Speaking to the New Times, Edson Rwagasore, the Division Manager, Public Health Surveillance and Emergency Preparedness and Response said that, “we haven't identified any case in Rwanda but we still have to enhance our surveillance at health facilities and Point of entry level.” He said that this is being done from the community level, with about 60,000 health community workers contributing to the preparedness activities. He added that from more than 70 samples taken among people who meet the case definition of travel history and any of the symptoms including fever, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhoea or bleeding, tested negative for Ebola. The virus that is circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain that spread during recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak began in September in a rural part of central Uganda. It spread earlier this month to Kampala, a city of more than 1.6 million people, by a man who had come from the Kassanda district to seek medical treatment and later died. There have been more than 90 confirmed and probable cases in Uganda since the start of the outbreak, including at least 44 deaths, according to statements by the health ministry and the World Health Organization. Ebola generally kills about half of the people it infects and spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Its symptoms include intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat, vomiting and diarrhoea.