Kampala: Uganda has reported nine more cases of Ebola in the capital Kampala, bringing the total number of known infections to 14 in the past two days, the health minister said on Monday. The outbreak began in September in a rural part of central Uganda. It spread earlier this month in Kampala, a city of more than 1.6 million people, by a man who had come from Kasanda district to seek medical treatment and later died.
Seven of the nine who tested positive on Sunday are family members of the man who died and belong to the Kampala neighborhood of Masanafu, Health Minister Jen Ruth Aceng said in a tweet. There is another health worker who treated the man and his wife at a private clinic, he said.
In his tweet, Eseng said, “Ugandan mates, be vigilant. Report yourself if you have contacted or know of someone who has contacted.”
Health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Anebuena said all patients in Kampala were isolated after they became symptomatic, reducing their chances of passing on the virus.
Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person. The virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain, which spread during recent outbreaks in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. went.
Ebola typically kills about half of those infected. Symptoms include severe weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, vomiting and diarrhea.
Since the start of the outbreak, Uganda has reported more than 90 confirmed and probable cases, including at least 44 deaths, according to statements from the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization.