The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | URN | The Ministry of Health revealed on Saturday the country has recorded three new cases of Ebola virus disease bringing the total number of confirmed cases recorded in the country to five.
The new cases include a Ugandan driver who transported the first case who has since succumbed to complications of the disease and a hospital a health worker who was managing him.
According to Dr Charles Olaro, the Director General of Health Services, the third of the new cases is a Congolese woman who had traveled to Uganda through the border in Arua to Entebbe. From Arua to Entebbe, a statement by the Ministry of Health shows, this woman traveled using a charted flight and sought care at a private hospital in Kampala.
While the private hospital later discharged the woman and she traveled back to the neighboring DRC, samples tested by authorities in Uganda returned positive after she had left the country.
The new cases come at a time when authorities in Uganda are contesting the move by the World Health Organization to cluster Uganda with only few cases with the DRC that has since recorded dozens of confirmed cases and deaths.
At a press conference on Thursday, Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health announced travel restrictions to the DRC saying Uganda had no positive cases at the time because the only imported case which was being treated in Uganda had since tested negative.
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, the United States had updated its travel advisory, urging Americans not to travel to the DRC, South Sudan, or Uganda for any reason, and to reconsider travel to Rwanda due to the Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the region.“
The Department’s Travel Advisories for DRC, South Sudan, and Uganda are now Level 4 – Do Not Travel, and the Travel Advisory for Rwanda is Level 3 – Reconsider Travel,” the notice on the U.S. Embassy website stated.
One American who had travelled to the DRC tested positive for Ebola and was later evacuated to Germany for treatment.
The current outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain is the second such outbreak to be recorded in both Uganda and the DRC. Both countries have also previously experienced multiple outbreaks involving the Zaire strain of Ebola.
Health experts say the Bundibugyo strain remains a serious public health threat, particularly because there are currently no approved vaccines or specific therapeutics for it, with treatment largely focused on supportive care.The fatality rate of this lethal viral disease is estimated at forty percent.
