The Ebola epidemic that has ravaged Uganda since September has killed up to 44 people, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday. “In total, there are 60 confirmed and 20 probable cases of Ebola, with 44 dead and 25 people recovered,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva. The previous WHO report, published on October 5, reported 29 deaths. The figures provided by the UN agency include deaths among people confirmed with the virus, but also among suspected cases.
The figures published by the Kampala authorities, for their part, only count deaths among confirmed patients, and the last official report from Uganda, dated October 11, was 19 dead. “We remain concerned that there may be more chains of transmission and more contact (with the virus) than we know about in the affected communities,” the WHO chief said.
The government is taking a step forward to curb the virus
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered on October 15 a lockdown of two central districts of the country at the epicenter of the current Ebola epidemic with a travel ban, curfew and closure of places open to the public. Yoweri Museveni had already ordered traditional healers to stop treating the sick, in a bid to slow the spread of the virus, and police to detain anyone suspected of having Ebola who refused to be released.
Officials say the cases are concentrated in the central districts of Mubende and Kassanda and the outbreak has not reached Kampala, despite a couple of people testing positive for the virus in the capital. These two positive cases “increase the risk of transmission in the city”, which has 1.5 million inhabitants, stressed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The transmission is by fluids.
Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhea. Infected people only become contagious after the onset of symptoms, after an incubation period ranging from 2 to 21 days. Epidemics are difficult to contain, especially in urban areas.
Uganda has experienced several Ebola epidemics, the last of which was in 2019. There is currently no vaccine against the strain of Ebola virus, known as the “Sudanese strain,” that is currently wreaking havoc in the country. The WHO announced on October 12 that clinical trials of vaccines against this strain could begin “in the next few weeks” in Uganda.
Source: BFM TV
