DATE=11/03/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=UGANDA / EBOLA (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-

BYLINE=KATY SALMON

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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///EDS: MAY BE USED AS AN ALTERNATE TO 2-268790 BY PITMAN///

INTRO: The deadly Ebola virus is spreading to new parts of Uganda, dashing hopes that the disease had been brought under control. Katy Salmon reports that the latest death brings the toll to 82.

TEXT: Health officials have flown to southern Uganda after a soldier died in a hospital in the town of Mbarara the first victim of the disease outside the northern district of Gulu, which has been the center of the epidemic.

Experts from Medicins Sans Frontieres, the World Health Organisation (W-H-O) and the U-S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working with their Ugandan counterparts to contain the disease.

The teams are closely watching those who had contact with the dead soldier, those who handled the patient before he traveled to the south, when he was in the hospital, and those who handled the body. Ebola has a 21 day incubation period.

Ebola is one of the most horrific diseases known to man. Usually, 90 per cent of Ebola victims die after developing flu-like symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding from all of the bodily orifices. The Ebola virus is passed through bodily fluids. There is no cure.

The soldier had returned from a posting in Gulu - where 260 people are reported to have the disease. The health ministry say they think he had contact with someone in Gulu who had the disease.

Health officers are optimistic they can prevent another epidemic and are not imposing any travel restrictions on people travelling in or out of Gulu - except for known Ebola cases.

W-H-O has praised local health workers and international agencies for their swift action to contain the Ebola outbreak after it was identified on October 14th.

This is the first time Ebola has been found in Uganda. The virus is named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the first case was reported in 1976. That epidemic killed more than 270 people.

American specialists from the U-S Centers for Disease Control believe the current outbreak originated in southern Sudan where it was last recorded in 1979. This raises the possibility that Ugandan rebels based in southern Sudan may have introduced the disease during their cross-border attacks on northern Uganda.

The rebels have been fighting a 13-year war against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government and have kidnapped thousands of people, mostly children. The children are used as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. (Signed)

NEB/KS/GE