Ebola now tested in Entebbe
Dec 16, 2007
THE first Ebola tests to be carried out using the newly-installed machine at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, kicked off recently, with 18 samples.
By Gladys Kalibbala
THE first Ebola tests to be carried out using the newly-installed machine at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, kicked off recently, with 18 samples.
Dr Sam Zaramba, the director general of Medical services, commissioned the machines.
The machines, which were provided by the American Government, were assembled by the Centre for Disease Control at the institute. “This will ease the strain of waiting for results for about a week from Atlanta, as we can now get them in one day,†Zaramba said. However, the laboratory is out of bounds to the public.
Of the 18 samples, 11 were sent by Bundibugyo Hospital and seven from other districts. Samples from Bundibugyo showed that eight of the patients had Ebola and three were negative. The samples from other districts were negative. A group of experts from Atlanta tested another 32 samples, which they received last Monday.
The experts comprise eight people, headed by Pierre Rollin. Three of them are working at the institute, four in Bundibugyo and one at the health ministry headquarters in Wandegeya.
Rollin, who is working with the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, said he has worked on Ebola cases for more than 25 years. He attended to Ebola cases in Sudan in 1976 and Gulu in 2001.
Rollin said the machine can ran 300 samples at once, although currently, the team is testing the samples as they come in.
Transmission of Ebola can only occur after someone has started falling sick.
Symptoms include high fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.
THE first Ebola tests to be carried out using the newly-installed machine at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, kicked off recently, with 18 samples.
Dr Sam Zaramba, the director general of Medical services, commissioned the machines.
The machines, which were provided by the American Government, were assembled by the Centre for Disease Control at the institute. “This will ease the strain of waiting for results for about a week from Atlanta, as we can now get them in one day,†Zaramba said. However, the laboratory is out of bounds to the public.
Of the 18 samples, 11 were sent by Bundibugyo Hospital and seven from other districts. Samples from Bundibugyo showed that eight of the patients had Ebola and three were negative. The samples from other districts were negative. A group of experts from Atlanta tested another 32 samples, which they received last Monday.
The experts comprise eight people, headed by Pierre Rollin. Three of them are working at the institute, four in Bundibugyo and one at the health ministry headquarters in Wandegeya.
Rollin, who is working with the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, said he has worked on Ebola cases for more than 25 years. He attended to Ebola cases in Sudan in 1976 and Gulu in 2001.
Rollin said the machine can ran 300 samples at once, although currently, the team is testing the samples as they come in.
Transmission of Ebola can only occur after someone has started falling sick.
Symptoms include high fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.