Uganda has confirmed seven cases of Ebola virus including that of a 24-year-old man who died earlier this week, a Ugandan health ministry official said on Thursday. These cases were confirmed two days after the Uganda health authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the disease.
Additionally, seven deaths suspected to be due to Ebola disease are being investigated. The patient had high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and was vomiting blood. He was initially treated for malaria.
“As of today, we have seven confirmed cases, of whom we have one confirmed death,” Dr Kyobe Henry Bbosa, Ebola Incident Commander at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, gave a statement during a briefing. “But also we have seven probable cases that died before the confirmation of the outbreak”, he added.
Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012.
An Ebola Zaire outbreak occurred in the nation in 2019. The virus was brought in from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is next door and was dealing with a serious epidemic in its northeastern region.
In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo city of Beni, a fresh case of the Ebola virus was identified in August. In the Congolese city of Beni, an Ebola vaccination programme was started last month.
