UGANDA: Ebola Case in Country’s East as Outbreak Expands

A woman and her child arrive for ebola related investigation at the health facility at the Bwera general hospital near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bwera. By Reuters

An Ebola case has been confirmed in Jinja in eastern Uganda, the country’s health minister said on Sunday, the first time the outbreak has spread to a new region of the country from central Uganda where cases have been confined so far.

Authorities have been struggling to contain the highly infectious and deadly haemorrhagic fever since the epidemic was declared on Sept. 20.

Uganda has so far recorded a total of 135 confirmed cases and 53 deaths, according to the health ministry.

« Contact tracing and epidemiological investigations have been activated, » Aceng said.

The virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain that spread during recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ebola generally kills about half of the people it infects.