GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,052

UGANDA: Four Ebola deaths now reported in Masindi

The confirmed spread of the viral fever Ebola to a third district, Masindi
in western Uganda, was on Monday linked to a woman who fled from a
hospital to her home town once she was suspected of having contracted the
disease, Ugandan media reported. Dr Sam Okware, head of the National Task
Force on Ebola, said the woman died two weeks ago but officials did not
know immediately of her case. Three relatives of the woman had also died
in Masindi, bringing the national death toll to 110, they quoted Okware as
saying. The woman's husband, who died on Monday, had tested positive for
the Ebola antigen at Kiryandongo Hospital, Okware added. "We want to get
all the contacts of all those people who were in close contact with those
dead people, because they died before they went to hospital. They died
very quickly, and we want to trace those who carried out the burials," the
Associated Press agency (AP) quoted him as saying.

The total number of Ebola cases on Monday stood at 328, according to a
statement by Director-General of Health Services Dr Francis Omaswa, cited
by Radio Uganda. There had been no new admissions in Mbarara District
[where three cases and two deaths had previously been confirmed], Omaswa
said. As of Sunday, the Ugandan Ministry of Health had reported 320 cases
and 102 deaths for Gulu District, according to the latest update from the
WHO on Monday.

["Infection Control for Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers in the African Health
Care Setting", is available in English and French at:
http://www.who.int/emc/diseases/ebola/index.html#Haemorrhagic]