Uganda Ebola deaths climb to four; seven suspected deaths under investigation
Kampala, Uganda (PANA) - The Ugandan health ministry said here Saturday three more patients had died from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), bringing the total number to four, the New Vision newspaper reported.
It quoted a press release by the ministry on Friday as saying that the number of probable deaths stands at 11 while investigations are ongoing to confirm the cause of death of seven other people.
The patients contracted the Sudan ebolavirus – one of the six species of the Ebolavirus genus, the WHO Africa Regional Office said in a statement on Thursday.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the ministry's spokesperson, said the probable cases included any person who died from suspected EVD and had an epidemiological link to a confirmed case but was not tested and did not have a laboratory confirmation of the disease.
He said eight of the deaths were from the community while three were facility-based.
Ainebyoona said there were 25 active cases in hospital out of which six were confirmed and 19 suspected, while 58 contacts had been listed.
In an accelerated effort to scale up response to the Ebola disease outbreak in Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was delivering medical supplies, providing logistics and deploying staff to support the national authorities in halting the spread of the virus.
Those suspected to have caught the virus are receiving treatment at the regional referral hospital in Mubende, the district where the disease was confirmed this week, making it the first time Uganda has detected the Sudan ebolavirus since 2012.
Mubende is in the central region of Uganda and is about a two-hour drive from the capital, Kampala, and sits along a busy road leading to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are gold mines in the area, which attract people from different parts of Uganda, as well as other countries.
The mobile nature of the population in Mubende increases the risk of a possible spread of the virus.
The statement said WHO had deployed a technical team to Mubende district to support surveillance, infection prevention and control and the management of cases.
-0- PANA MA/RA 24Sept2022
