EBOLA OUTBREAK CONFIRMED IN UGANDA;6 ALREADY DEAD

Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng revealed that a female aged 10 months old from Kilwani village, Kiruma who died on September 11 from St. Florence medical Clinic; a male aged 32 years enrolled nurse at St. Florence Medical Clinic in Madudu who passed on September 15 from Cure medical clinic in Mubende town and a female aged 43 years from Bulega, Kiruma who died on died on September 1 at Mubende Referal hospital.

In a statemenent from the Mubende Regional Refferal Hospital director, Dr Alex Adema, it is suspected that the ebola cases are of the Sudan variant following tests at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI).

Ebola is a rare and deadly disease in people and nonhuman primates. People can get ebola through direct contact with an infected animal (bat or nonhuman primate) or a sick or dead person infected with Ebola virus.

Health minister Dr Ruth Aceng yesterday told journalists that the victim had exhibited symptoms of Ebola before succumbing to the disease.

Dr Aceng told journalists yesterday at Uganda Media Center that on the 15th September,2022, the suspect aged 24years old man a resident of Ngabano Village of Madudu sub county in Mubende District.

According to the Health Minister Dr. Jane Aceng the victim was a resident of Ngabano village in Mubende district, about 147km (91 miles) from the capital, Kampala.

Dr Aceng says Eight people with suspected symptoms are receiving medical care, and that governemtn is sending staff to the affected area.

The revelation was first made on 19th September,2022 night by senior district officials who indicated that the official announcement by the Ministry of Health is expected today.

Ministry of Health officials rushed to Mubende after a number of residents succumbed to what was initially reported as a strange illness.

Six of the deceased were residents of different villages in the sub-counties of Madudu and Kiruma in Mubende district.

A report from Mubende regional referral hospital, among the deceased is a 10-month-old baby from Kiwanyi village in Kiruuma sub-county, a two-year-old from Kakeezi in Madudu sub-county, a 32-year-old nurse at St Florence medical clinic (also from Madudu), and a 43-year-old female adult from Bulega among others.

Dr. Emmanuel Batibwa, the director of Mubende hospital says, on September 15 during the Mubende hospital morning assembly, it was noted that there was an increase in the number of hospital deaths; some attributed to fevers and bleeding. Five of the six people had initially been diagnosed with malaria, while others reportedly stormed health facilities with fever and bleeding.

On Saturday, the regional response team sat and decided to isolate the patient in the MDR-TB ward. Samples were collected from the patient and sent to UVRI for laboratory confirmation. At the same time, a team was dispatched off to Madudu to investigate the cause of the increasing deaths.

He says the laboratory findings from UVRI indicate that the admitted patient that actually passed on Monday morning tested positive for Ebola Sudan variant.

The Democratic Republic of Congo which neighbors Uganda in the west is currently battling an outbreak of Ebola virus categorized as a hemorrhagic fever.

This will is the fifth time Uganda is reporting an ebola outbreak. Uganda last had an ebola outbreak in 2018. The deadliest was in 2000 were 224 deaths were reported. Others were in 2014 and 2017