Re: Uganda: Unidentified illness kills 12 including Healthcare worker in Kibaale
Re: Uganda: Unidentified illness kills 12 including Healthcare worker in Kibaale
It is probably too early too speculate on which ebolavirus would be the most likely if this indeed is due to Ebola. I can't think of anything in the original post that would make one strain more likely than another. Likewise, I don't see any reason why Ebola virus would be more likely than Marburg either.
If previous VHF outbreaks are any clue, results of testing for Ebola or Marburg should be available in the next day or two. I will admit it is slightly odd to get this report from the UGPulse and still nothing from the Daily Monitor.
http://www.promedmail.org/
Published Date: 2012-07-25 19:25:37
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed fatal disease - Uganda: (KI)
Archive Number: 20120725.1214822
UNDIAGNOSED FATAL DISEASE - UGANDA: (KIBAALE)
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Tue 24 Jul 2012
Source: UGpulse.com [edited]
http://www.ugpulse.com/uganda-news/...y-a-strange-disease-12-people-dead/26400.aspx
Kibaale District attacked by a strange disease, 12 people dead
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Health personnel in Kibaale district are puzzled by a strange disease which has invaded the district leaving 12 people dead and others on their deathbeds. The name and cause of the disease is not yet known.
Information coming in from the District Health Officer indicates that 11 people from one family in Nyamarunda Sub County have died since the strange disease surfaced in the district. However, what has worried the health workers more is that the disease has started killing their own. Yesterday a Clinical Officer at Kagadi health sub-district was buried after dying from that strange disease. It's said that the Clinical Officer was the one who treated some of the 11 people from Nyamarunda Sub County and is suspected to have contracted the disease from them. There is also information that the driver of the vehicle which transported some of the dead people from home to the hospital is also seriously ill.
According to the District Health Officer, Dr. Dan Kyamanwa, the signs of the disease include: high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and systems failure. It kills patients within 4 days to a week. The Minister of State for Planning, Matia Kasaija, while speaking during the burial of the Clinical Officer, promised that government will send a team of experts to investigate the cause of the strange disease.
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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
[The undiagnosed disease is characterised by high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and systems failure. It kills patients within 4 days to a week, and appears to be easily transmissible to carers. Haemorrhage is not mentioned as a significant feature which excludes some filovirus haemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola and Marburg. However, the signs and symptoms are compatible with an outbreak of Bundibugyo haemorrhagic fever, a filovirus haemorrhagic fever 1st identified in the Bundibugyo district of Western Uganda. Bundibugyo District is located in western Uganda, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo. After reports of a mysterious illness in Bundibugyo District, the presence of a novel 5th filovirus species, Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BEBOV), was identified in diagnostic samples submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in November 2007.
According to McNeil et al., in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 16, Number 12, December 2010
(
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/12/10-0627_article.htm) the onset of this filovirus haemorrhagic fever is associated with nonspecific signs and symptoms, including fever, myalgias, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; at later stages of disease, overt hemorrhage has been reported in about 45 percent of cases. In the outbreak of Bundibugyo filovirus haemorrhagic fever the proportion of deaths among those infected was lower (about 40 percent). In the original Bundibugyo outbreak the signs and symptoms included headache, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, conjunctivitis, skin rash, muscle pain, fatigue, difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, hiccups, bleeding, unexplained death, or contact with a patient with suspected Ebola haemorrhagic fever.
Kibaale District is a district in Western Uganda. Like most other Ugandan districts, it is named after its principal town, in this case Kibaale, where the district headquarters are located. Kibaale can be located on the map of the District of Uganda at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Uganda. This map shows that Kibaale and Bundibigyo are adjacent districts in the Western Region of Uganda.
Of course, this outbreak of disease may not be caused by a virus. Further information is awaited. - Mod.CP]
