DATE=2/27/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-273070

TITLE=UGANDA/EBOLA (L-O)

BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The outbreak of the killer Ebola virus in Uganda is finally over. Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, the country has been declared Ebola-free, 42-days after the last patient recovered.

TEXT: This outbreak of the lethal hemorrhagic fever killed 173-Ugandans since it began last September in the northern town of Gulu. Ebola spreads quickly, in this case through contact with contaminated blood during burial rights for the first victims.

Once they identified the killer virus, Ugandan health officials called in the U-S Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.

Ebola patients were quarantined in two Gulu hospitals. Red Cross workers went out into the community to trace the condition of anyone who might have come in contact with people who had contracted the virus.

With no known cure, most of its victims die bleeding out through their mouth, nose, eyes, and anus. The disease is so easy to contract through contaminated body fluids that Gulu's health workers were particularly at risk. Donors brought in gowns, goggles, and masks to help protect medical personnel, but it was too late for many, including the superintendent of Lacor Hospital, Mathew Lukwiya.

Dr. Lukwiya was one of the first to identify the outbreak and refused to leave its epicenter. He was among those remembered at a ceremony in Gulu, where Uganda's Ministry of Health declared the country Ebola-free.

The ministry says it has been 42-days since the last patient recovered with no new cases observed since January 14th. That 42-day waiting period is twice the incubation period for the virus, a precaution health officials take to ensure the epidemic is finished.

Gulu is the last Ugandan district to be declared Ebola-free. Travelers from Gulu spread the disease to Mbarara and Masindi districts where officials say the virus has already ended.

The outbreak has become something of a political issue in the country's presidential campaign, with opponents of President Yoweri Museveni claiming the disease had been spread by Ugandan troops returning from Congo. Scientists eventually concluded that this strain of Ebola originated in Sudan, a point President Museveni made repeatedly during campaigning this month in areas affected by the virus.

Since Ebola's first recorded outbreak in the late 1970's, the fever has shown up in Sudan, Zaire, Ivory Coast, and Gabon. In 1995, it killed more than 300-people in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. (SIGNED)

NEB/SS/KL/RAE