Ugandan health officials have confirmed that 11 people have died in the latest Ebola outbreak in the country, with more than 20 others admitted to a health facility as government officials attempt to stop the disease from further spreading.
According to a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the government is also tracing around 58 persons who came in contact with the victims, some of whom are believed to have gone into hiding.
“All the new cases and deaths happened in the central Uganda district of Mubende, the epicenter of the outbreak,” Ainebyoona said in the
statement released on Friday.
“The cumulative confirmed cases now stand at 11 and the total deaths attributable to the outbreak also stand at 11, confirmed and suspected.
“A total of 58 contacts of the victims have been listed and they are being followed up by the response team.
“Government officials in the Ebola response team have warned that cases of infections may continue to rise because of the delayed response and limited knowledge about the extent of the spread of the disease.
Health workers, who are leading the investigations into the root cause of the outbreak, have neither determined the source of the outbreak nor the index case, at least by Friday,” the statement added.
Uganda’s Ebola Incident Commander, Dr Henry Kyobe, who also confirmed the figure, said in an interview that the latest statistics from the Health Ministry indicate that besides affecting the accuracy of contact tracing, unsuspecting infected persons could be spreading the disease in communities.
“There is a little bit of a time lag from the earlier cases and the time we confirmed and declared the outbreak. Ebola symptoms are similar to that of malaria and typhoid. The infections can be mistaken for a common illness,” he said.
“It was until the individual (first case) went to the major public facility (Mubende Regional Referral Hospital) that the disease was identified. The person moved from one private facility to another.”