Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Uganda

Date: 12 Dec 2000 21:40:04 -0500
From: Marjorie P. Pollack
Source: Xinhua News Agency, filed Tue 12 Dec 2000 10:56 AM EST [edited]


Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Cases in Uganda Total 413
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KAMPALA: The Ugandan Health Ministry announced here on Tue 12 Dec 2000 that
another 7 Ebola hemorrhagic fever cases have been reported in Uganda since
last Friday [8 Dec 2000], bringing the total number of cases to 413. "A
total of 5 cases in the northern Ugandan district of Gulu and 2 in Masindi
in the west have been admitted to hospitals [during this] period,"
Assistant Commissioner for National Disease Control, Alex Opio, told a news
briefing here at the Ministry's headquarters. "Things are getting better
with fewer cases reported in the past 5 days, and it is really very
encouraging."

Opia said that the Ministry is still intensifying control measures and
supplying necessary protective materials to the affected districts, adding
that social mobilization is going on. Control efforts will not end until 42
days after the last patient is discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has announced that the Mbarara district in
the southwest is now Ebola-free with no new cases reported in the past 6
weeks. A total of 5 cases had been confirmed with 4 deaths in Mbarara
district in October.

Opio said that the Ebola fever epidemic is now [confined to] Gulu and
Masindi districts. So far 161 have [died] in the country since the Ebola
hemorrhagic fever epidemic broke out in Gulu in September [2000].

Ebola hemorrhagic fever was first identified in 1976 in parts of Sudan. It
struck the southern Sudan again in 1979, and in 1995 it hit Kikwit, in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing over 300 people.

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