Uganda has declared an outbreak of Ebola as a confirmed case of comparatively rare Sudan strain was reported in the country. The announcement of the outbreak was made by the Uganda's Health Ministry and World Health Organization.
Patient Had High Fever, Diarrhea Before Dying
Announcing the outbreak, Diana Atwine, the health ministry's permanent secretary, said: "We want to inform the country that we have an outbreak of Ebola, which we confirmed yesterday." Detailing the patient, Atwine said that the patient with the confirmed case was a 24-year-old man from Uganda's central Mubende district. He showed multiple symptoms including high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and blood vomiting. The patient was initially being treated for malaria.
Al Jazeera reported that that as present there were eight suspected cases being treated in a health care facility. The outlet reported that in a statement, the WHO's Africa office said that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.
"Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. Thanks to its expertise, action has been taken to quickly detect the virus, and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections," Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Africa's regional director, was quoted by the outlet.
Uganda Reported Ebola Zaire Strain in 2019
Claiming that there had been seven outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, including four in Uganda and three in Sudan, WHO said that Uganda reported outbreak of Ebola Zaire strain in 2019.
The symptoms of the fatal virus, which transmits through body fluids in humans, include fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea. The outbreak also led to several talking about it on social media.
"#Ebola outbreak in #Uganda: Meanwhile, the country's medical storage stores Ebola vaccines for the whole African continent. This is the 5th time Uganda is reporting an ebola outbreak, the last one being in 2018. But the deadliest was in 2000 where 224 deaths were reported," tweeted a user.
"Uganda is facing an outbreak of an Ebola species (Sudan ebolavirus) the world has not seen since a 2012-3 outbreak in Uganda. Meanwhile, DRC has a case of the more commonly seen Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus)," wrote another.
