GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,073

UGANDA: Analysis discounts suspected Ebola cases in Jinja

Three suspected cases of Ebola in Jinja District, southeastern Uganda,
have proved not be the viral haemorrhagic fever after laboratory analysis,
health ministry officials said on Thursday. One hundred and sixty-one
people have died of the Ebola virus since the outbreak began in October,
according to ministry officials. Of 413 cases, 382 were in the northern
district of Gulu, where the epidemic was first confirmed in mid-October.
Two new cases had recently been confirmed in Masindi District in the west,
while in Mbarara, southwestern Uganda, "the epidemic may have been
effectively contained", Dr Oladapo Walker, WHO representative for Uganda,
told IRIN. The Ugandan government has started paying risk money to medical
workers who attend to Ebola patients, the Assistant Commissioner of
National Disease Control, Dr Alex Opio, told Rwanda News Agency (RNA) on
Wednesday. IRIN reported on Tuesday that the fatality rate for the Ebola
outbreak in Uganda was around 30 percent, but can now clarify that, based
on the latest statistics available, it stands at 39 percent.