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  • Ebola virus infects 51, kills 16 in Uganda

    Ebola virus infects 51, kills 16 in Uganda
    Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:24pm EST

    By Tim Cocks

    KAMPALA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Uganda confirmed on Thursday that the Ebola virus, a haemorrhagic fever which bleeds many of its victims to death, has infected 51 people and killed 16 in an area near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

    "The mysterious disease outbreak in Bundibugyo has now been confirmed to be Ebola disease," Dr Sam Zaramba, the Health Ministry's director of health services, said in a statement.

    Victims of the fever -- named after the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some of the first cases were recorded in 1976 -- started falling ill and in some cases dying in Bundibugyo district, on Uganda's western border with Congo.

    "So far, a total of 51 cases have been reported ... of whom 16 have died," the statement added.

    The last time Uganda was hit by an epidemic of Ebola, a disease in which the infected can bleed through their noses, ears and other orifices, 425 people caught it in 2000.

    Just over half of them died.

    An outbreak in neighbouring Congo this year infected up to 264 people, killing 187, the World Health Organisation says.

    Dr Sam Okware, head of Uganda's national haemorrhagic fever task force, said the government had already taken action long before the diagnosis was confirmed as Ebola.

    "From the beginning we've been isolating cases ... but we can't say it's contained. There may be other people in those villages unknown to us," he said.

    He added that this was probably a new, milder strain of the virus. The death rate, which normally hits 50-90 percent, was unusually low.

    "It's definitely a different strain. There's not much bleeding -- most died of fever," he said.

    Health officials originally suspected Marburg, a close Ebola cousin which infected three people in a different part of western Uganda the month before, killing one.

    But samples had tested negative.

    The government said it was taking steps to prevent the epidemic spreading further.

    "A response team is being strengthened to conduct contact tracing and public education ... All close contacts of the suspected cases are being closely followed up," Zaramba said.

    The graphic horror of Ebola's symptoms has inspired scary movies and sparked fears it could be used as a chilling biological weapon, though scientists say a between two and 21-day incubation period means it would not be very effective.

    The 1995 disaster film Outbreak, staring Dustin Hoffman, featured a fictional virus based on Ebola.

    In 1992, Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese religious cult responsible for the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, sent a team to Congo to learn more about the virus. (Editing by Charles Dick)

  • #2
    Re: Ebola virus infects 51, kills 16 in Uganda

    Uganda confirms 16 Ebola deaths

    A haemorrhagic fever that has killed 16 people and infected more than 50 others in Uganda has been confirmed as the deadly Ebola virus.

    The casualties are all in the region of Bundibugyo, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    DR Congo has been battling for five months to contain an Ebola outbreak close to its border with Angola.

    Symptoms of the epidemic include high temperature, bloody diarrhoea and visible haemorrhaging.

    There is no known cure for Ebola, which is fatal in around 80% of cases.

    Ugandan health officials originally suspected that the Marburg virus was responsible for the deaths, but laboratory testing has shown it to be Ebola.

    The authorities say they are taking steps to isolate existing cases.

    The virus is thought to be transmitted through the consumption of infected bush meat and can also be spread by contact with the blood secretions of infected people.

    Some 174 people have died in DR Congo but only 13 of these have been confirmed as having Ebola.

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    • #3
      Re: Ebola virus infects 51, kills 16 in Uganda

      Map showing the location of the current Ugandan Ebola outbreak and the recent Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

      Thread on earlier DRC outbreak is here:


      Click image for larger version

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      http://novel-infectious-diseases.blogspot.com/

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      • #4
        Re: Ebola virus infects 51, kills 16 in Uganda

        New deadly strain of Ebola emerges

        Hemorrhagic virus has infected dozens in Uganda


        Nov. 29, 2007

        A new strain of Ebola virus has infected 51 people and killed 16 in an area near Uganda’s border with Democratic Republic of Congo, U.S. health experts said on Thursday.

        Analysis of samples taken from some of the victims show it is a previously unknown type of Ebola, a team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

        “This virus didn’t behave as would be expected of some of the known strains,” Dr. Tom Ksiazek, current chief of the CDC’s special pathogens branch, said in a telephone interview.

        “That tipped us off that this is probably a novel or new strain of Ebola.”

        Ugandan health officials have said the virus appears to be unusually mild, but Ksiazek said it is not yet clear if this is the case. He said experts need to check to see how many diagnosed patients are still alive.

        Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever, meaning it can cause internal and external bleeding. Victims often die of shock but symptoms can be vague, including fever, muscle pain and nausea.

        There are four identified strains, Ksiazek said. The two strains that cause the most human disease are the Zaire and Sudan strains, named after the countries in which they first appeared.

        A strain called Reston caused an outbreak in a primate facility in the Washington, D.C. suburb of the same name while a single human case in Ivory Coast was caused by the Cote d’Ivoire strain.

        The Zaire strain killed 80 percent of victims, while the Sudan strain had just over a 50 percent mortality rate.

        The new strain would be the fifth identified. Ksiazek said it had not yet been named.

        The CDC said nine researchers were helping in the response to the Uganda outbreak and another team was waiting for an official invitation from Uganda’s government before heading there to help.

        ?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
        Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet

        ~~~~ Twitter:@GertvanderHoek ~~~ GertvanderHoek@gmail.com ~~~

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        • #5
          Re: Ebola virus infects 51, kills 16 in Uganda

          Ebola: Bundibugyo medics abandon patients

          By John Thawite, Bizimungu
          Kisakye and agencies

          MEDICAL workers in Bundibugyo District have fled their workplaces in fear of contracting the deadly Ebola virus. Elias Byamungu, the Chief Administrative Officer, on Friday said medical workers had abandoned patients in health units, for fear of being infected.

          ?The health workers are terribly afraid,? he said. Byamungu put the death toll at 28. Health authorities, however, last night put the toll at 18, up from 16 registered by Thursday.

          ?We have had two more deaths in the last 24 hours and the disease continues to spread,? Dr. Sam Zaramba, the Director General of Health Services, told Reuters. He said World Health Organisation (WHO) officials had teamed up with local experts to draw up a strategy to contain the outbreak. More than 50 people are also infected.

          District health officials said five new cases were admitted to Bundibugyo Hospital yesterday.

          ?We have set up isolation wards where all those who have been diagnosed with Ebola have been quarantined, and are being monitored closely,? Zaramba said.

          The first victim died in August, but the cause of death was referred to as a ?mysterious illness?.

          Until Wednesday when the health ministry and the WHO confirmed it as being Ebola, the disease, which has ravaged 14 villages in the district, was being described as ?mysterious? and ?strange?.

          Zaramba said the illness was confirmed as being Ebola following tests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, US.

          Speaking on phone, Byamungu said among the infected are three medical workers including a doctor, whom he identified only as Ssesanga, who he said was critically ill. He said the disease started in Kikyo Parish, Kasitu Sub-county and later spread to Ngamba Parish, Bundibugyo Town Council and Bubukwanga Sub-county.
          The first death occurred after a group of residents of Kikyo feasted on a goat in August.

          ?There were accusations and counter-accusations of witchcraft. Some people were even arrested until we discovered that the problem was medical,? Byamungu said.

          He expressed fear that the disease could be incubating in the neighbouring districts of Kabarole and Kasese, where infected people could have travelled.

          Residents of Kabarole are in a state of panic, with many avoiding handshakes or being in crowed places. Taxi drivers plying the Fort Portal-Bundibugyo route said they were taking extra precautions. ?We are not overloading our vehicles so as to reduce body contact among passengers. We also do not accept to transport visibly ill people,? said one driver.

          Ebola is spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons. This is the second major Ebola outbreak in Uganda. The last one occurred in 2000 in Bunyoro and in the north, killing over 140 people.

          Published on: Saturday, 1st December, 2007

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