Uganda registers one case of Ebola in Mubende

By Barbara Nalweyiso

Uganda has registered one case of Ebola in Mubende district. The revelation was made last night by senior district officials who indicated that the official announcement by the Ministry of Health is expected later today.

Senior Ministry of Health officials rushed to Mubende after a number of residents succumbed to what was initially reported as a strange illness.

Six of the deceased were residents of different villages in the sub-counties of Madudu and Kiruma in Mubende district.

According to a health report from Mubende regional referral hospital, among the deceased is a 10-month-old baby from Kiwanyi village in Kiruuma sub-county, a two-year-old from Kakeezi in Madudu sub-county, a 32-year-old nurse at St Florence medical clinic (also from Madudu), and a 43-year-old female adult from Bulega among others.

Dr. Emmanuel Batibwa, the director of Mubende hospital says, on September 15 during the Mubende hospital morning assembly, it was noted that there was an increase in the number of hospital deaths; some attributed to fevers and bleeding. Five of the six people had initially been diagnosed with malaria, while others reportedly stormed health facilities with fever and bleeding.

On Saturday, the regional response team sat and decided to isolate the patient in the MDR-TB ward. Samples were collected from the patient and sent to UVRI for laboratory confirmation. At the same time, a team was dispatched off to Madudu to investigate the cause of the increasing deaths.

He says the laboratory findings from UVRI indicate that the admitted patient that actually passed on Monday morning tested positive for Ebola Sudan variant.

The Democratic Republic of Congo which neighbors Uganda in the west is currently battling an outbreak of Ebola virus categorized as a hemorrhagic fever.

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