Mysterious fever kills 14 in western Uganda

[Gert van der Hoek]

Mysterious fever kills 14 in western Uganda

Fri 16 Nov 2007,

KAMPALA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A mysterious fever has killed 14 people and infected 37 others in western Uganda over the last three months, a Health Ministry official said on Friday.

Sam Okware said the fever, though deadly, was not haemorrhagic. Blood samples from it had already tested negative for the killer Marburg virus that infected three people in a nearby district in August, killing one.

Victims of the fever in Uganda's Bundibugyo District, on the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, died not from bleeding but from dehydration because of severe diarrhoea. All had complained of fever and abdominal pains before dying.

"We're investigating but we really don't know what it is," Okware said. "We tested for Marburg, thank God it was negative. It is most likely a virus, but we haven't identified it."

Okware said the disease was unlikely to be Rift Valley fever, which has killed 96 people in neighbouring Sudan.

"It could also be leptospirosis, which comes from contact with rodents, or typhus fever. There are a lot of funny viruses in those mountains," he said.

New cases were still emerging regularly. "It is not at all contained," he said.

In 2000, Uganda was hit by an epidemic of the deadly Ebola virus, in which those infected often bleed to death. It infected 425 people, just over half of whom died.

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL16688876.html

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Mysterious fever kills 14 in western Uganda

Mystery illness hits western Uganda

By Conan Businge
and Tim Cocks

A MYSTERIOUS fever has killed 13 people and infected more 43, in western Uganda since August this year, a joint medical team from Kampala and Bundibugyo has confirmed.

The disease has been registered in Bundibugyo District?s 14 villages, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Sam Okware, the health ministry?s Commissioner of Health Services, said the deadly fever was not the Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Blood samples from patients had tested negative for the killer Marburg virus; which in August killed three people and infected another.

The Bundibugyo District Health Officer, Dr. William Sikyewunda, said there had been no new deaths since last Sunday, but four fresh cases were registered on Tuesday. ?The disease has not yet been contained. We are working hard to subdue it.?

Officials from the health ministry explain that the patients, died not from bleeding but from dehydration, because of severe diarrhoea. ?All had complained of fever and abdominal pains,? they explained.

Okware added that the disease was unlikely to be Rift Valley fever, which has killed 96 people in neigbouring Sudan.

?It could be leptospirosis, which comes from contact with rodents; or typhus fever. There are a lot of strange viruses in those mountains,? he said.

In 2000, Uganda was hit by an epidemic of the deadly Ebola virus, which causes people to bleed to death. It infected 425 people, killing more than half of them.

Published on: Saturday, 17th November, 2007

http://www.sundayvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=7&newsCategoryId=123&newsId=597653

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Mysterious fever kills 14 in western Uganda

Western virus contained

Monday, 19th November, 2007
By Conan Businge

THE mysterious viral outbreak in western Uganda?s Bundibugyo district has been contained, Dr. Sam Okware, the health ministry?s commissioner of health services, has confirmed.

The disease has symptoms similar to Marburg fever ?There are no more infections and deaths have reduced. The patients are also recovering quickly. The viral attack has been contained and we hope there will be no more deaths,? Dr. Okware announced.

By press time, the Centre for Disease Control in the USA had not yet ascertained what the disease was, after analysing the the 20 blood samples Uganda?s health ministry sent them.

One more person died of the virus last week. This raises the death toll to 14 people over the last three months.

?There is a likelihood that it might be rift valley fever, typhus fever or leptospirosis, which comes from contact with rodents,? Dr. Okware explained. He said that if it is rift valley fever there is need for greater care.

?This disease is very infectious since it is transmitted by mosquitoes from animal to animal, and from animals to man.?

Dr. Okware said the viral outbreak had been clustered into three groups. The first he said comprised a family who may have eaten an infected goat. All the 15 family members got infected and four of them, including the boy, died.

The second was of a patient admitted in the labour ward in Kikyo Health Centre and in due course infected five other people with the virus. Four of them died days later.

Okware said the third group got infected after handling bodies of the victims, without any protective gear. Six of the 20 who got infected died.

According to the team from Bundibugyo, the disease is in 12 villages of the district.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/598055

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Mysterious fever kills 14 in western Uganda

No Details Yet On Bundibugyo Strange Disease

The Monitor (Kampala)

29 November 2007


By Jane Nafula & Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa
Kampala

THE Ministry of Health has failed to establish the type of strange disease that has hit the western district of Bundibugyo.

The Director General of Health Services, Dr Sam Zaramba, told Daily Monitor yesterday that more blood samples would be sent to South Africa and the Centre for Disease Control in the US for further scrutiny.


"We sent three different blood samples to South Africa and the US but they tested negative. But we will send more samples to help us identify this disease," Mr Zaramba said on telephone.

The highly infectious strange disease was first reported in Bundibugyo in August. It has similar symptoms to the Marburg hemorrhagic fever which struck Kamwenge District in western Uganda, killing two people and infecting four others at Kitaka mine. It comes in form of a rush, severe headache, vomiting and diarrhea.

The disease has so far claimed 16 lives while over 40 people have been infected.

However, both local and foreign medical experts have since failed to establish its name and cause.

The first samples which were taken to South Africa and the US when the disease had just hit the district tested negative for viral hemorrhagic fever.

The disease is spread through contact with infected people or staying within close range with victims.

The victims have therefore been isolated and are being given treatment.

"We give them general medication like antibiotics to treat things like rashes," Dr. Zaramba said.

"We are also concentrating on sensitising people about infection control methods ," he added.

Recently, the ministry of health, the World Health Organisation and Makerere Medical School dispatched a response team to trace contacts of the sick persons and carry out public awareness campaigns on preventive measures.

Dr Sam Okware -the Director of Community Health said they suspected the disease to be Leptospirosis- a rare disease caused by small mammals. The first victims reportedly fed on goat meat which infected the entire family, according to Dr. Okware.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711281196.html

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Mysterious fever kills 14 in western Uganda

Disease is confirmed today as Ebola:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42728