Ebola outbreak in Uganda: First case in the eastern part of the country

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Authorities have been struggling to contain the spread of the highly contagious virus that causes an often fatal hemorrhagic fever since the outbreak was announced on September 20.

A case of the Ebola virus has been confirmed in Jinja, eastern Uganda, Health Minister Jane Ruth Atseng announced on Sunday, the first time there has been talk of the current epidemic spreading in this part of the African country, as infections were detected until yesterday mainly in its central sectors.

Authorities have been struggling to contain the spread of the highly contagious virus that causes an often fatal hemorrhagic fever since the outbreak was announced on September 20.

According to the official data of the Ministry of Health, 135 cases have been verified and at least 53 deaths have occurred due to Ebola.

As stated by Dr. Acheng in her Twitter thread, the case in Jinja was a 45-year-old man who died last Thursday. Samples of the patient taken by workers at the private clinic where he was admitted were tested in the laboratory and it was verified that he was infected with Ebola.

“Tracing his contacts and epidemiological investigations have begun,” the minister assured.

The current outbreak in Uganda of about 45 million people is attributed to the rare Sudan strain, for which there is no effective vaccine, as opposed to the more common Zaire strain, to which recent outbreaks in neighboring DR Congo have been attributed.

In general, the disease caused by the Ebola virus kills about half of the people who become infected.

The virus, transmitted to humans from infected animals and from human to human through bodily fluids, causes symptoms such as severe physical weakness, persistent high fever, vomiting, bleeding, diarrhea. Infected people are not contagious until after symptoms appear, after an incubation period ranging between 2 and 21 days.

Uganda has already experienced several outbreaks of Ebola since the virus was identified in 1976 in what was then Zaire, now DR Congo. The most recent, in 2019, officially claimed the lives of five people.

The worst Ebola epidemic in West Africa, from 2013 to 2016, had an extremely heavy death toll: more than 11,300 dead.

RES-EMP

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