Ebola Kills 16 In Uganda, More Infected

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Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 30 Nov 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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A news agency reported from Kampala, capital city of Uganda, earlier this morning that an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the district of Bundibugyo in the western part of the country had killed 16 people.

Director of health services at the Ugandan ministry of health, Sam Zaramba, told IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks, part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) news agency that 51 people had become infected with the deadly Ebola virus over the past three weeks.

He said more health personnel were being brought into the area to help deal with the outbreak. A number of experts had been sent to the area affected this morning, he said, to study the situation.

Ugandan health officials sent blood samples to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA, for analysis, and they had tested positive for Ebola virus, said Zambara.

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC were working closely with the Ugandan health authority to ensure they remained in control of the situation, explained Zambara.

Bundibugyo district, which borders on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), saw its first case of Ebola fever on 10th November. Health authorities in DRC anounced on 19th November that the virus had killed 6 out of 17 infected people in their country.

Ebola is a group of viruses that cause Ebola haemorrhagic fever, for which there is no cure, and leads to various symptoms that can appear suddenly, including diarrhoea, fever, fatigue, general pain and malaise, and severe bleeding, both externally and internally. Cause of death is usually from hypovolemic shock (not enough blood) or organ failure.

The virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids and tissue of infected humans and other primates, including dead ones.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever has a high death rate, claiming between 50 and 90 per cent of victims. The only way to stop or contain it is through prevention, rapid diagnosis, and isolation of people suspected of being infected with the virus.

The last outbreak of Ebola in Uganda was in 2000, in the district of Gulu, when 428 people became infected, 173 fatally.

Ebola first came to light as a deadly pathogen of humans and other primates in 1976 when it was identified in outbreaks in western equatorial Sudan and a nearby region of Zaire (now DRC), although other outbreaks had occurred earlier in these and other regions.

The virus is also killing many gorillas in lowland parts of Central Africa, with some populations becoming badly affected. The WHO suggests there is no animal population that can keep the virus going between outbreaks, but there are experts who have suggested the fruit bat could be an exception.

Click here for more information about Ebola (WHO).

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Copyright: Medical News Today
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