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  • #76
    Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

    The statement that all the dead are adult men is highly unusual. Most contagious diseases would affect men and women equally. There was a reference in two different articles (including the Denmark release above) to alcohol consumption; adult men do tend to consume more alcohol than women or children would (but animals likely would not; perhaps that inference was incorrect?). Perhpas whatever is causing this is spread through contaminated alcohol? Uganda has had problems with contaminated alcohol before:



    The cases do appear slightly more scattered than an H2H spread would produce, and the rate of cases may have slowed or stopped (or reporting may just have).

    It is difficult to imagine that pneumonia is involved, without any mention of cough, breathlessness, chest pain, etc.; perhaps the word "pneumonia" is an errant translation of "plague".

    It does appear that bacteria may be involved in this, as antibiotics seem to help (especially according to the comments by the EAFR moderator).

    If the case in the Kalongo HCW who was vomitted on has been discarded, a wide variety of poisonings might also be suspect.

    Comment


    • #77
      Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

      Post #24 indicates that the HCW was female, and was reported on November 29, so she is at least still alive ten or more days later, so either she responded to treatment, or did not really contract this illness.

      Comment


      • #78
        Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

        I believe the report of "pneumonia" is the result of the Spanish article below, which calls this "plaga de neumonia", which translates as "plague of pneumonia", which isn't exactly the same this as "pneumonic plague", which is "peste neumonica" in Spanish.



        -----------

        Either way, that article has generated the following ProMED Portuguese post:



        Spanish to English translation
        Archive Number 20101208.4375
        Published Date 08-DEZ-2010
        Subject PRO / POR> Pneumonia, anchored: Uganda


        Pneumonia, Surt: UGANDA
        ************************
        Uma Mensagem / A message / ProMED-mail <http://www.promedmail.org>
        ProMED-mail e um program da / is a program of the International Society
        for
        Infectious Diseases <http://www.isid.org>

        Data: Quarta-feira / Wed, 08 dezembro / December 2010
        De: Promed-Port <Promed-Port@promedmail.org>
        Fonte: Public [07.12.2010]


        Uganda recorded outbreak of pneumonia: officials

        An outbreak of pneumonia is affecting Alnorte of Uganda, where the disease
        38personas killed and spawned dozens of hospitalizations, reported
        elmartes a senior health.

        Issa Makumbi, assistant in charge of disease control, said
        research on the disease that affects wing region since November
        continuing but preliminary tests confirmed that this is a
        deneumon&#237;a plague.

        Health services in the impoverished nation have esteafricano
        many problems. Deque can take weeks before identifying a
        disease and response teams Ylos send medical supplies
        affected areas.

        "So far, (the plague of pneumonia) was detected in the districts encinco
        northern Uganda, where a total of about 38 people were killed, "
        Makumbi.

        Pneumonia is a respiratory disease in generainfecci&#243;n
        lungs.

        Medical personnel were sent from the capital Kampala and est&#225;luchando by
        contain the outbreak.

        The north of the country recovers from two decades of guerracivil. Poverty and
        poor sanitation are chelates region very vulnerable to
        diseases.

        Comment:
        [Pneumonia outbreaks do not usually determined. Outbreak of pneumonia requires us to
        think of plague, Legionnaires' disease and influenza. Legionellosis is usually more
        located, in places difficult to diagnose without laboratory support more
        sophisticated.

        Plague is a possibility, especially the high number of deaths?
        ljs]

        Comment


        • #79
          Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

          Originally posted by curiosity View Post
          Has spread of the illness stopped? and/or have deaths been halted (presumably with treatment of antibiotics)? Or is an epidemic ongoing?
          I do not know. This entire situation is odd.

          It looks like the deaths are being reported as 38 but that many are, or have been, ill.

          This indicates to me that it is an ongoing problem:

          "Struggling medical team sent from the capital Kampala to contain the disease" from post #73

          "..specialists from CDC headquarters in Atlanta were on their way to help identify the illness.
          Staff from the World's Health Organization's Africa regional office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo have also been sent to Uganda."

          from post #72

          Comment


          • #80
            Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

            Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Red%20a.../-/133yu4ez/-/

            Red alert as mystery disease hits Uganda
            By LILLIAN ONYANGO laonyango@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Wednesday, December 8 2010 at 22:36

            Kenya is on high alert after a yet-to-be identified disease killed 35 people in Uganda.

            Reports indicate that 86 people had contracted the disease.

            The Director for Public Health and Sanitation, Dr Shahnaaz Sharif, on Wednesday said his office was in constant communication with Ugandan officials to monitor the outbreak.

            The symptoms of the illness are headaches, fever and vomiting blood. However, Dr Sharif said that he had received word that the Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever, caused by the Ebola virus, had been ruled out.

            Kitkum, which is situated about 400 kilometres north of Kampala, and three districts surrounding it, have so far been affected.

            Dr Sharif was quick to add that Kenya is not at immediate risk as there are some districts between Kitkum and the Kenyan border acting as ?buffers?.

            Nonetheless, health officials are vigilant especially in Turkana District, which is at highest risk, given its proximity to the affected region...

            Comment


            • #81
              Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

              This is a quip of information from an archived New York Times article regarding a 1990's outbreak of pneumonic plague in Surat, India

              "...Most of the pneumonic cases in Surat were reported from crowded, working class neighborhoods and a majority of those infected -- 840 of 1,026 -- were men."

              ARCHIVED New York Times Article

              Comment


              • #82
                Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                This isn't nearly as over as this post makes it seem...



                Published Date: 2010-12-08 13:42:41
                Subject: PRO/EAFR> Plague, Pneumonic - Uganda (Northern Districts)
                Archive Number: 20101208.215968

                PLAGUE, PNEUMONIC - UGANDA (NORTHERN DISTRICTS)
                ************************
                Date: Mon 7 Dec 2010
                Source: New Vision (Uganda) [edited]



                Mysterious Acholi disease is plague
                -----------------------------------
                Plague, a disease that affects rodents but can be spread to humans and other animals usually by infected fleas, has hit the northern Ugandan district of Kitgum, the health ministry has confirmed. The ministry said they had confirmed that the strange sickness was plague, not a hemorrhagic fever as earlier thought. "It is controllable, though fatal. We have sent another team to beef up the
                one we already had on the ground," it added.

                The disease surveillance officer in Kitgum district, Sr Grace Agwang, said preliminary results from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta showed that it was plague.

                In humans, plague has 3 forms, bubonic plague (infection of the lymph glands), septicemia plague (infection of the blood), and pneumonic plague (infection of the lungs). Pneumonic plague is the most contagious form, because it is airborne.

                The disease, according to the WHO report, hit Acholi sub-region on 3 Dec 2010. One person has been admitted in Kitgum at St Joseph Hospital, 2 others at Kalongo Hospital in Pader. The report adds that Kitgum district has so far had 18 cases, while one of the infected people died at St Joseph Hospital on 3 Dec 2010. According to the report, 9 other people have so far died.

                Medical personnel in Kitgum have set up an isolation unit at Kitgum Hospital. Health workers are also being trained by Medecins Sans Frontieres from Holland to handle the disease. At Kalongo Hospital, 24 people had been admitted by 3 Dec 2010. The WHO suggested that a community-based surveillance system needs to be reactivated in the affected districts.

                Medical officers said there was need for an adequate isolation unit, with a 24-hour ambulance service. They also want to be stocked with the essential medicines, and to set up a burial team.

                People contract plague through bites of infected fleas; direct contact with the tissues or body fluids of a plague-infected animal; inhaling infectious airborne droplets from persons or animals,
                especially cats, with plague pneumonia; laboratory exposure to plague bacteria.

                Swollen lymph nodes causing painful lumps are characteristic of bubonic plague. Other symptoms are fever, headache, chills, and extreme tiredness. Some people have gastrointestinal symptoms.

                If bubonic plague goes untreated can produce severe blood infection. Signs and symptoms are fever, chills, tiredness, abdominal pain, shock, and bleeding into the skin and other organs. Untreated
                septicemia plague is usually fatal.

                People with plague pneumonia have high fever, chills, difficulty breathing, a cough, and bloody sputum. Plague pneumonia is considered a public health emergency because a cough can quickly spread the disease to others. Untreated pneumonic plague is usually fatal.

                Symptoms usually begin within 2 to 6 days after exposure to the plague bacteria.

                Plague can be prevented by eliminating food and shelter for rodents around homes, work places, and recreation areas; removing brush, rock piles, junk, and food sources, including pet food; allowing health authorities to use appropriate and licensed insecticides to kill fleas during plague outbreaks in wild animals; treating pets (cats and dogs) for flea control regularly; avoiding sick or dead animals, and report such animals to the health department. Preventive treatment with antibiotics is recommended.

                [Byline: Conan Businge, Chris Ocowun]

                --
                Communicated by:
                ProMED-EAFR


                [The diagnosis of plague brings to a near end the uncertainty that has bedeviled the Ugandan health authorities and the scientific community concerning the causative agents of the outbreak that
                continued to spread to other areas of the country and caused more fatalities since mid November 2010. This was made worse by the fact that the clinical presentation was atypical of any of the 3 known forms of the human disease choosing instead to present as one of the viral haemorrhagic fevers, which also co-exist in the same area. Perhaps this is a bitter lesson for all us to learn that "common things do not always occur commonly." We must sometimes be outside our boxes. - Mod.BE]

                Comment


                • #83
                  Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                  This is the first local Ugandan article in several days; not plague, but at least no new deaths.



                  Northern disease still a mystery
                  Wednesday, 8th December, 2010 E-mail article Print article

                  By Jimmy Wokorach-Oboi
                  and Taddeo Bwambale

                  A new team of health experts from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is expected in Uganda tomorrow to intensify the fight against a mysterious illness that has hit at least six districts in northern and north-eastern Uganda.

                  The team is to carry out more tests to determine the cause of the outbreak, which has claimed about 38 lives since it was first reported in November.

                  CDC team leader, Jeffrey Miller yesterday said tests done at the CDC and Uganda Virus Research Institute joint laboratory in Arua district ruled out plague.

                  He said a series of preliminary tests done at the CDC laboratories in Entebbe and Atlanta in the USA also proved negative for on Ebola, Marburg and Congo Crimean haemorrhagic fever.

                  Patients complain of severe headache, dizziness, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.

                  Earlier this week, the health ministry said the outbreak was plague. But specialists from the World Health Organisation, ministry of health, CDC and several non-governmental organisations, have now revealed that there are no conclusive results proving this.

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                    Originally posted by alert View Post
                    It is difficult to imagine that pneumonia is involved, without any mention of cough, breathlessness, chest pain, etc.; perhaps the word "pneumonia" is an errant translation of "plague".
                    It is also difficult to imagine that pneumonic plague is involved without any mention of cough, breathlessness, chest pain, etc.

                    Without a cough, pneumonic plague does not transmit human to human.
                    Without coming in to contact with the pus of the buboes, bubonic plague will not transmit human to human.
                    Septicemic Plague (usually secondary or tertiary to the other two) can be transmitted by contact with body fluids, but is fatal so quickly that the infected would not have much time to spread the illness before becoming prostrate, therefore geographical spread would be more limited.

                    A poisoning of some sort seems more likely, or if plague, an as yet unidentified common reservoir -

                    Alternately, there may be a respiratory component not described in media yet.

                    One wonders if the US would send an expedited CDC team to Uganda if they were confident it was a natural occurence of plague.

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                      I think the respiratory symptoms are not being reported properly.

                      Who can cough up blood without coughing?

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                        Good point!

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia



                          Archive Number 20101208.4382
                          Published Date 08-DEC-2010
                          Subject PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed disease - Uganda (07): plague suspected

                          UNDIAGNOSED DISEASE - UGANDA (07): PLAGUE SUSPECTED
                          ************************************************** *
                          A ProMED-mail post
                          <http://www.promedmail.org>
                          ProMED-mail is a program of the
                          International Society for Infectious Diseases
                          <http://www.isid.org>

                          [1]
                          Date: Tue 7 Dec 2010
                          Source: Reuters Africa [edited]
                          <http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6B60HX20101207>


                          Pneumonic plague has broken out in northern Uganda, killing 38 people
                          and putting dozens in hospital, a senior health official said on
                          Tuesday, 7 Dec 2010.

                          Issa Makumbi, assistant commissioner in charge of disease
                          surveillance, said investigations into a disease that struck the
                          region in November [2010] were continuing but that tentative tests
                          had confirmed it was pneumonic plague.

                          Health services in the impoverished east African nation are patchy
                          and it can take weeks before diseases are identified and response
                          teams and medical supplies are sent to affected areas.

                          "So far (pneumonic plague) has been detected in 5 districts in
                          northern Uganda where a total of about 38 people have died," Makumbi
                          said.

                          Medical personnel had been sent from the capital Kampala and were
                          battling to contain the outbreak. Northern Uganda is recovering from
                          2 decades of civil war waged by the Lord's Resistance Army. Poverty
                          and poor sanitary conditions makes the region vulnerable to diseases.

                          --
                          Communicated by:
                          ProMED-mail
                          <promed@promedmail.org>

                          [But read further below in [3] and [4] Mod.LM]

                          ******
                          [2]
                          Date: Mon 6 Dec 2010
                          Source: AllAfrica, The New Vision (Uganda) report [edited]
                          <http://allafrica.com/stories/201012070114.html>


                          Plague, a disease that affects rodents but can be spread to humans
                          and other animals usually by infected fleas, has hit the northern
                          Ugandan district of Kitgum, the health ministry has confirmed. The
                          ministry said they had confirmed that the strange sickness was
                          plague, not a hemorrhagic fever as earlier thought.

                          The disease surveillance officer in Kitgum district, Sr Grace Agwang,
                          said preliminary results from the Centre for Disease Control in
                          Atlanta showed that it was plague.

                          The disease, according to the WHO report, hit Acholi sub-region on 3
                          Dec 2010. One person has been admitted in Kitgum at St Joseph
                          Hospital, 2 others at Kalongo Hospital in Pader. The report adds that
                          Kitgum district has so far had 18 cases, while one of the infected
                          people died at St Joseph Hospital on 3 Dec 2010. According to the
                          report, 9 other people have so far died.

                          Medical personnel in Kitgum have set up an isolation unit at Kitgum
                          Hospital. Health workers are also being trained by Medecins Sans
                          Frontieres from Holland to handle the disease. At Kalongo Hospital,
                          24 people had been admitted by 3 Dec 2010. The WHO suggested that a
                          community-based surveillance system needs to be reactivated in the
                          affected districts.

                          [Byline: Conan Businge, Chris Ocowun]

                          --
                          Communicated by:
                          Thomas James Allen
                          <tjallen@pipeline.com>

                          ******
                          [3]
                          Date: 8 Dec 2010
                          Source: AFP [edited]
                          <http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hgmieXl3QCUDRkdH0Z12UD704bFg?docId=CNG.6a0a0 14a69f4ce1afd31a8eefff9f2b8.441>


                          Uganda scrambling to identify new deadly disease
                          ----------------------------------------------------------
                          Uganda is working "around the clock" with international health
                          experts to identify an unprecedented illness that has killed 38
                          people in the north of the country, an official told AFP on Wednesday.

                          The unknown illness was first detected on November 10 in several
                          districts in the central part of northern Uganda, according to a
                          statement from the health ministry.

                          Local and foreign media reports had identified the illness as bubonic
                          plague, which has previously struck Uganda, most recently in 2008.

                          But an official from the ministry's Epidemiology and Surveillance
                          Division working closely on the outbreak said Wednesday that the
                          disease remained mysterious and evidence collected so far pointed
                          away from bubonic plague.

                          "The results we have received from Fort Collins are negative for
                          bubonic plague," the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP,
                          referring to a specialized laboratory in the US state of Colorado.

                          "If this was typical plague, we would have found that out by now. We
                          just haven't seen a disease like this before," he added.

                          The doctor explained that all previous incidents of plague in Uganda
                          were contained in the West Nile region, much further west than the
                          current outbreak.

                          The source added that plague victims suffer from inflammation in
                          specific body parts, including the armpits, which has not happened in
                          this case.

                          "The plague we've seen in the past also tends to cause fatalities
                          among women and children, but all the dead here are adult men," the
                          official also said.

                          The doctor said that while Uganda-based staff from the US Centers for
                          Disease Control (CDC) were already working on the case, specialists
                          from CDC headquarters in Atlanta were on their way to help identify
                          the illness.

                          Staff from the World's Health Organization's Africa regional office
                          in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo have also been sent to Uganda.

                          "We simply don't have the information to conclude what this disease
                          is yet, but we are working around the clock, literally 24 hours," the
                          official said.

                          Ugandan staff have developed a treatment that has so far halted the
                          death toll at 38, according to the source.

                          The 91 confirmed patients reported severe headaches, dizziness,
                          fever, diarrhoea and vomiting, according to the health ministry.
                          --
                          Communicated by:
                          Thomas James Allen
                          <tjallen@pipeline.com>

                          ******
                          [4]
                          Date: 8 Dec 2010
                          Source: NewVision [edited]
                          <http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/740598>


                          Northern disease still a mystery
                          --------------------------------------
                          A new team of health experts from the US Centers for Disease Control
                          (CDC) is expected in Uganda tomorrow to intensify the fight against a
                          mysterious illness that has hit at least six districts in northern
                          and north-eastern Uganda.

                          The team is to carry out more tests to determine the cause of the
                          outbreak, which has claimed about 38 lives since it was first
                          reported in November.

                          CDC team leader, Jeffrey Miller yesterday said tests done at the CDC
                          and Uganda Virus Research Institute joint laboratory in Arua district
                          ruled out plague.

                          He said a series of preliminary tests done at the CDC laboratories in
                          Entebbe and Atlanta in the USA also proved negative for on Ebola,
                          Marburg and Congo Crimean haemorrhagic fever.

                          Patients complain of severe headache, dizziness, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.

                          Earlier this week, the health ministry said the outbreak was plague.
                          But specialists from the World Health Organisation, ministry of
                          health, CDC and several non-governmental organisations, have now
                          revealed that there are no conclusive results proving this.

                          [Byline: Jimmy Wokorach-Oboiand Taddeo Bwambale]

                          --
                          Communicated by:
                          Thomas James Allen
                          <tjallen@pipeline.com>


                          [Primary pneumonic plague (one percent of natural plague
                          presentations) arises as a result of inhalation of plague bacilli in
                          infectious aerosols, such as would be produced when there are
                          secondary pneumonic complications in bubonic/septicemic plague.

                          Primary plague pneumonia has a short incubation period of 1-3 days,
                          after which there is sudden onset of flu-like symptoms including
                          fever, chills, headache, generalized body pains, weakness, and chest
                          discomfort. A cough develops with sputum production, which may be
                          bloody, and increasing chest pain and difficulty in breathing. As the
                          disease progresses, hypoxia (low oxygen concentration in the blood),
                          and hemoptysis (coughing up blood) are prominent. The disease is
                          invariably fatal unless antimicrobial therapy commences within 24
                          hours of exposure.

                          Patients with primary pneumonic plague generate large quantities of
                          infectious aerosols that pose a significant risk to close contacts.
                          CDC guidelines identify contacts within 2 meters (6.5 ft) as being at
                          greatest risk and do not consider the organism likely to be carried
                          through air ducts or vents. Persons who have been in contact with
                          pneumonic plague patients or handling potentially infectious body
                          fluids, or tissues without appropriate protection should receive
                          preventive antimicrobial therapy. The preferred antimicrobial agents
                          for prophylaxis include tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones.

                          It appears however, that the plague diagnosis may be less than
                          definitive, as indicated in the most recent news stories. The
                          clinical picture described in the outbreak is quite atypical for
                          pneumonic plague and the absence of any apparent accompanying bubonic
                          plague would be unusual, and may mean that another pathogen is
                          responsible or that multiple pathogens are causing disease in the
                          same region. The involvement of teams including Ugandan public health
                          authorities, US CDC, WHO and NGOs indicate extensive international
                          attention has been given to this outbreak and that adequate
                          laboratory diagnostic testing should lead to identification of the
                          pathogen or pathogens responsible for this outbreak. We await
                          further results with interest
                          .

                          The districts in the Northern Region of Uganda affected by the
                          outbreak can be located using the map at
                          <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Uganda>.
                          The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Uganda can be accessed at
                          <http://healthmap.org/r/0089>. - Mod.LL/LM]

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                            Source: http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/dail...bola+&ID=17001

                            Uganda Health News: US experts visit Uganda to fight Ebola
                            UGPulse News is Sponsored by Peezy First published: 20101209 4:30:20 AM EST

                            A team of health experts from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has arrived in Uganda today and others are expected in Uganda on Friday to investigate reports that deadly Ebola, Marburg and Congo Crimean hemorrhagic fever have reattached Uganda.

                            The mysterious illness suspected to be Ebola Marburg and Congo Crimean haemorrhagic fever have hit parts of northern Uganda killing over 38 people.

                            The delegation has come to carry out tests to establish whether the cause of the outbreak is Ebola, Marburg and Congo Crimean haemorrhagic fever.
                            The team has been led by Jeffrey Miller. However the Uganda Virus Research Institute joint laboratory in Arua district, CDC laboratories in Entebbe and Atlanta have ruled out Ebola, Marburg and Congo Crimean haemorrhagic fever.

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 16 dead

                              Originally posted by alert View Post


                              The first six fatalities in Kitgum were one woman, three men, and two male youths.
                              This is from earlier in this thread, and contradicts the statement that all the fatalities are adult males (although if the youths were older teenagers, you might could them as adults, and the it would be true that most, though not all, were adult males).

                              Just more confusion....

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                Re: Uganda: Hemorrhagic fever outbreak- 38 dead, 91 ill- officials say pneumonic plague or pneumonia

                                More confusion and rumors

                                Mysterious Illness Update
                                Friday, December 3, 2010

                                The Peace Corps were evacuated yesterday. The CDC and the US Embassy have kept quiet on anything that might be happening, their responses to emails claim that nothing is really amiss and that we shouldn’t be worried. But the fact that the Peace Corps bolted to Kampala certainly isn’t reassuring. Robbie talked to one of them who had 10 months left in country who said he thinks they might just send them home.

                                Another group of Muzungus got so spooked that they didn’t just leave the North they left the country entirely. They are currently biding their time in Nairobi, Kenya. Apparently they heard from a nurse who was here in 2000 (when there was a big outbreak of Ebola), that she saw one of the new cases and it was definitely Ebola. This is unconfirmed, but unsettling nonetheless.

                                We have already checked the prices of private hire cars and private jets (fifty bucks a head to Kampala, not bad) to Kampala just incase this blows up, but all signs are pointing to it not being a big deal. Although there is some concern that the government in Kampala will try to cover up whatever happens because of the upcoming election in February of next year. Hmm….


                                Evacuation<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P></O:P>
                                Sunday, December 5, 2010


                                We went the way of the Peace Corps. A few days into the much talked about plague we received a phone call from our academic advisor telling us that we were being evacuated to Kampala. Most of us were pretty upset to be leaving Gulu and our Homestay families behind, but the logic was pretty clear. We packed up all of our things and loaded them onto our trusty matatus. We were supposed to leave at 11 but naturally we left at a little before 1, AWA. We encountered the usual bus matatu break down on the way to Kampala so our four-hour journey turned into an eight-hour journey. Our driver, Tycoon the Man, also decided it would be a good idea to buy a chicken, still clucking, and set it under the back seat. I don’t know how the little guy didn’t make any noise or try to escape but it was definitely still alive.<O:P></O:P>


                                We made it to Kampala by nightfall and returned to the trusty Bativa Hotel where we started our trip three months ago. Most of us were pretty exhausted so we passed out. The following day Dr. William, our Academic Director, gave us a briefing on the situation. Apparently there were confirmed cases of Pneumonic Plague and a strong possibility of Ebola, I’m glad we got out of there as soon as we did. It’s still upsetting to think that us Muzungus can escape so easily but we leave behind all the residents of Gulu to fend for themselves. There is nothing we can do, but it’s troubling that the actual Ugandans really have no escape. We also learned that our safari at the end of our trip has been cancelled so our trip might end earlier than expected.http://chasinguganda.blogspot.com/<O:P></O:P>
                                CSI:WORLD http://swineflumagazine.blogspot.com/

                                treyfish2004@yahoo.com

                                Comment

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