GREAT LAKES: Uganda alerts Kenya to Ebola danger

NAIROBI, 15 November (IRIN) - Health officials in Uganda have alerted
their counterparts in the Kenyan health ministry to the possible danger of
an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever after it was discovered that seven
Kenyans attended the funeral of a fellow citizen believed to have died
from the disease in Masindi district, western Uganda, late last month.

The woman who died was buried in traditional manner - one of the principal
causes of transmission of the disease, the BBC reported. Since then, three
of her relatives have died, including her husband, who tested positive for
the Ebola antigen.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the woman had been hospitalised
in Gulu - the northern district where Ebola first broke out - and
contracted the disease from an infected nurse. Staff from the Ugandan
health ministry, WHO, the US Centre for Disease Control, and the health
NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) arrived in Masindi on Monday "to
implement barrier nursing procedures and trace contacts", it said.

Uganda's Director-General of Health Services Dr Francis Omaswa said on
Tuesday he had spoken to his Kenyan counterpart, who had already located
those Kenyans who attended the funeral in Masindi. The seven had shown no
signs of Ebola but were quarantined in their homes and would be monitored
for 42 days before being declared free of infection, a Kenyan health
ministry statement, cited by local media, said. In all, some 150 people
who attended the funeral in Masindi were under medical surveillance,
Omaswa added.

A team of experts from Gulu were due to travel to Kenya on Wednesday to
offer advice on how to deal with any potential Ebola epidemic, the BBC
report said. "Despite this ominous-sounding development, the Ugandan
authorities remain confident that the Ebola epidemic is coming under
control," it added.

WHO on 3 November recommended that no special restrictions were required
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," it said.

>From 8-11 November inclusive, only five confirmed Ebola cases were
recognised in Gulu, bringing the cumulative figures for the district to
320 cases and 104 deaths, the health agency stated on Tuesday. In the
southwest Mbarara district, three people are confirmed to have died from
the disease. All of the cases in Mbarara and Masindi had resulted from
people infected in Gulu, and, at the national level, the number of new
cases of Ebola fever had "declined sharply", WHO added.

Ebola is an acute viral illness with symptoms including sudden onset of
fever, malaise and headache, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and rash.
Haemorrhagic fever is often accompanied by liver damage, kidney failure
and terminal shock. It is transmitted by direct contact with the blood,
secretions, organs or semen of infected people. The current outbreak is
the first in Uganda.