Thu 20 October 2022:
The World Health Organization reported on Wednesday that the death toll from an Ebola outbreak declared last month in Uganda has risen to 44.
At a press conference in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been 60 confirmed and 20 probable cases, with 44 deaths and 25 recoveries.
“We remain concerned that there may be more chains of transmission and more contacts than we know about in the affected communities,” he added.
The previous death toll provided by the WHO on October 5 reported 29 fatalities.
President Yoweri Museveni last week ordered two districts at the heart of the epidemic in central Uganda to be put under lockdown, imposing a travel ban, a curfew and the closure of public places.
Museveni had already ordered traditional healers to stop treating the sick, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.
He also ordered the police to arrest anyone infected with Ebola who refused to isolate.
The authorities say the outbreak remains concentrated in the central districts of Mubende and Kassanda has not reached Kampala, despite a couple testing positive for the virus in the capital.
Tedros on Wednesday said two cases from Mubende sought care in Kampala, “increasing the risks of transmission in the city” of 1.5 million people.
Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids, and common symptoms include fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhea.
Outbreaks are difficult to contain, particularly in urban areas.
The last recorded fatality from a previous Ebola outbreak in Uganda occurred in 2019.
The Sudan Ebola virus is the strain that is currently circulating in Uganda, and there is no vaccine available.
According to the World Health Organization, clinical trials on drugs to combat that strain could begin within weeks.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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