GAVIN PATTISON and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Gulu | Thursday
AN INTERNATIONAL team of health experts has arrived in northern Uganda to help contain an outbreak of the Ebola virus which has already killed 39 people – but health workers fear they will discover more cases in the next few days as medical teams reach remote villages.
A three-man team from the World Health Organisation flew into the town of Gulu where the outbreak is concentrated, bringing with them much-needed supplies of protective clothing, including gumboots, gowns and gloves, and boxes of disinfectant.
Team leader Dr Guenael Rodier said the team would train local medical staff in dealing with the haemorrhagic virus, which causes patients to bleed from every orifice, including the eyes, ears and gums. It has no known cure.
Up to now, doctors and nurses have struggled on despite inadequate protection from the virus, which is spread easily through contact with an infected person’s body fluids. Three nurses have already died.
Despite the virulence of Ebola – which can kill within 48 hours – Rodier, the director of the WHO’s department of communicable diseases, said he was optimistic its spread could be checked.
”This disease is containable using very simple means,” he said.
But Dr Matthew Lukwiya, medical superintendent at St. Mary’s Hospital near Gulu, said some people may have fallen sick without knowing about Ebola, and may not seek medical help unless they are sought out by health workers.
”We still don’t know what is going on in the countryside because information filters in so slowly,” Lukwiya said. ”But people are going to become more aware and I think we can expect many more cases in the next few days.”
The Gulu area has been quarantined and the local radio broadcasts regular warnings telling people to stay in their homes, not to touch or shake hands and not to share cups and plates. – Reuters