ANNA BORZELLO and VINCENT MAYANJA, Kampala | Monday
HEALTH authorities in northern Uganda are fighting frantically to curb the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed at least 33 people in a densely populated town of Gulu, but the government says there is “no cause for alarm.”
In the past, outbreaks have hit villages, not densely populated areas. The upsurge in population has subsequently become a nightmare for health workers trying to contain the deadly hemorrhagic viral disease there, a health ministry official said.
An epidemic of Ebola – which causes its victims to bleed uncontrollably from every orifice – killed 245 people in the town of Kikwit in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), then Zaire, in 1995.
In 1976, there was an outbreak of Marburg fever – also a deadly hemorrhagic viral disease – in Bugiri District in eastern Uganda, killing 19 people.
Director General of Health Services Frances Omasa said 33 people were known to have died from the disease and that 62 cases had been reported.
This is the first recorded case of Ebola in Uganda. Once the virus is contracted, there is a 50 to 90% chance of dying.
Uganda’s Health Minister Crispus Kiyonga addressed the crisis but stressed there was no need for panic, saying the steps that government has taken are adequate to contain this outbreak of Ebola.
Omasa echoed this view. “The broad message which comes through is that the most striking feature of this disease is the relative ease with which the virus can be contained.”
Doctors in Gulu believe that many of those infected could have contracted the disease at funerals, after washing their hands in a shared bowl of water before eating, a tradition that symbolises unity.
While a series of measures has been taken to contain the disease, these do not include imposing a quarantine on the area.
It is thought the disease resides in wild animals including bush rats, chimpanzees and bats. – AFP