GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,071

UGANDA: 4,000 being monitored in Ebola watch in Gulu

Health workers in the northern Ugandan district of Gulu were monitoring
over 4,000 people suspected to have had contact with victims of Ebola
haemorrhagic fever, the Ugandan newspaper 'The New Vision' said on Monday.
"One patient alone can infect more than 20 people. We consider all those
who attended the burial of victims and those who looked after them in
hospital as Ebola contacts," Dr Paul Onek, head of medical services in
Gulu, told the Associated Press (AP) on Monday. Gulu District spent 45
million Ugandan shillings (almost US $27,000) each week on the fight
against Ebola, Onek added. Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Uganda, Martin
Brennan, announced the donation of 180 million shillings (US $107,000) by
USAID to Lacor Hospital in Gulu, as a contribution to infectious disease
control, Ugandan radio reported on Sunday.

One hundred and sixty people have died of Ebola since the outbreak was
first reported in mid-October, the Ugandan Ministry of Health reported on
Friday. Of 405 confirmed cases, 376 were in Gulu. Those who die from Ebola
succumb to massive bleeding from all body orifices. In areas of Sudan and
the DRC, where it first struck, mortality rates ranged between 80 and 90
percent, whereas the mortality rate in the current outbreak in Uganda has
remained at around 30 percent. WHO credits the low mortality rate in
Uganda to the policy of actively seeking out contacts which has been
pursued by the Ugandan national task force since October.