Uganda declared Ebola free
Jun 17, 2011
THE health ministry is today set to announce an end of the Ebola outbreak in the country.
By Raymond Baguma
THE health ministry is today set to announce an end of the Ebola outbreak in the country.
According to the ministry spokesperson Rukia Nakamatte today marks the end of 41 days required before marking an end to an epidemic at the magnitude of Ebola.
The disease is a contagious haemorrhagic fever with a high fatality rate.
Its symptoms include fever, bleeding through body openings, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, headache, rash and red eyes.
However, the source of the outbreak, which was reported in Luwero district early last month, remains a mystery, according to the director general of health services, Dr. Nathan Kenya Mugisha.
The outbreak was confirmed on May 12, after a 12-year-old girl from Zirobwe sub-county in Luwero district died at Bombo Military Hospital.
This has remained the only confirmed case of the Sudan Ebola strain outbreak, and Mugisha said all the subsequent 25 suspected cases proved negative.
“Originally, we were also wondering whether it was Ebola. But further tests performed by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in the US, confirmed that it was Ebola,†Mugisha said.
Mugisha added that the Ebola isolation ward that was set up at the hospital would remain in place to handle any future cases of disease outbreaks.
THE health ministry is today set to announce an end of the Ebola outbreak in the country.
According to the ministry spokesperson Rukia Nakamatte today marks the end of 41 days required before marking an end to an epidemic at the magnitude of Ebola.
The disease is a contagious haemorrhagic fever with a high fatality rate.
Its symptoms include fever, bleeding through body openings, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, headache, rash and red eyes.
However, the source of the outbreak, which was reported in Luwero district early last month, remains a mystery, according to the director general of health services, Dr. Nathan Kenya Mugisha.
The outbreak was confirmed on May 12, after a 12-year-old girl from Zirobwe sub-county in Luwero district died at Bombo Military Hospital.
This has remained the only confirmed case of the Sudan Ebola strain outbreak, and Mugisha said all the subsequent 25 suspected cases proved negative.
“Originally, we were also wondering whether it was Ebola. But further tests performed by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in the US, confirmed that it was Ebola,†Mugisha said.
Mugisha added that the Ebola isolation ward that was set up at the hospital would remain in place to handle any future cases of disease outbreaks.