UGANDA: Warning that Ebola still not under control

NAIROBI, 8 November (IRIN) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has
reported that the number of cases of the viral haemorrhagic fever Ebola
now stand at 284, with 91 deaths resulting. Outside of the cases reported
in the northern district of Gulu, there have been three confirmed cases,
including one death, in Mbarara district in the southwest, it said.

The chairman of the national Ebola Task Force, Dr Sam Okware, said the
situation in Mbarara was stable, and that the first "imported" case of
infection had been isolated before the disease could spread far in the
community, the semi-official 'New Vision' newspaper reported on Tuesday.
"The cases have been isolated and contacts identified. An active search
has started. Awareness is now very high," it quoted Dr Okware as saying.

The mortality rate for the strain of Ebola fever currently affecting
Uganda was holding steady at around 30 percent, a much lower rate than
that for other strains, WHO stated, adding that over 110 persons have been
discharged from hospitals in Uganda.

However the international health NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) warned
on Monday that the epidemic in the north was still not under control.
"While the measures taken so far have clearly been successful, there is
still a chance of the epidemic spreading beyond the Gulu district, and
there have been some cases with strong clinical evidence appearing in
neighbouring areas," it said.

Nursing staff and others carers, such as relatives, were particularly at
risk and all should wear protective clothing, MSF stated.

Local people in Gulu and Mbarara were being reminded not to carry out
traditional death rituals, such as having family members wash the body of
the deceased, because there are indications this may play an important
role in spreading the disease, MSF stated on Monday. The Ebola virus is
transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen
of infected persons. "The dead must be buried as quickly as possible in
order to prevent infection," it added.

WHO would not be able to declare the outbreak over until 42 days after the
last case was reported, it said on Tuesday.

Some Ebola survivors discharged from hospital in Gulu have been rejected
by their families and communities, who fear they could still contract the
disease from them, the PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) reported. "When I
was discharged from Lacor Hospital after being admitted for 10 days, I
found my house destroyed, together with my property. Even the chairman of
the local council and the parish chief ordered me to be sent away," it
quoted one such survivor, Bruce Okello, as saying.

In Tanzania, meanwhile, the health ministry has denied reports of an
outbreak of the disease in the northwest. The director of preventive
services at the ministry, Dr Ali Mzige, said in an interview with 'The
Guardian' newspaper that a patient who was bleeding from the nose at
Kanyigo ward in Muleba district, Kagera region, was suffering from malaria
and not Ebola.

"If there was any cause for public concern, we would have alerted the
public", he added.

Dr Mzige said the government had plans in place to avoid the spread of the
epidemic from neighbouring Uganda, and had already sent medical experts to
the border regions of Kagera, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Rukwa, Mbeya
and Ruvuma, 'The Guardian' reported. Travellers from Uganda were also
being screened, it said.

WHO has recommended no special restrictions on travel or trade to or from
Uganda. Many countries have routine health regulations concerning travel
and trade, and "no specific measures with respect to Ebola haemorrhagic
fever are warranted or advised", WHO said last week.

The current outbreak is the first in Uganda. It was first identified in
1976 in the Western Equatoria province of South Sudan and in the nearby
region of Yambuku, northern DRC, then Zaire.