Kampala Ebola cases rise to 14

Author : | Published: Monday, October 24, 2022

Ugandan health workers inside the Ebola red zone at the Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital isolation centre on October 20, 2022. (Daily Monitor).

Ebola cases in Ugandan capital Kampala have risen to 14 after nine more people tested positive, the country Ministry of Health has announced.

Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said the nine new cases that had been under quarantine at Mulago hospital, are contacts of the original cases from Kassanda District.

“The nine cases are contacts of the fatal case who came from Kassanda District and passed on in Mulago Hospital,” Daily Monitor Newspaper quotes Dr. Aceng as saying in a tweet on Monday.

The new confirmed cases include seven family members of a deceased patient from Kassanda, and one health worker who managed him in a private clinic together with his wife from Seguku, according to the minister.

The 14 cases in Kampala bring the cumulative confirmed cases to 84 in the country as of October 24, 2022, the ministry said.

The information also indicates that there have been 28 confirmed cumulative deaths, and 26 recoveries since the first Ebola case was confirmed in the country on September 19.

In addition, contacts listed for follow-up stands at 1,746 people, and 19 active cases on admission.

Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, with common symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

The particular strain now circulating in Uganda is known as the Sudan Ebola virus, for which there is currently no vaccine.

The World Health Organization says clinical trials could start within weeks on drugs to combat that strain.