(Kampala) On Sunday, the Ministry of Health announced that 16 cases of Ebola had been discovered in Uganda since Tuesday and the authorities had declared an “epidemic” in the center of the country.
Posted at 1:23 pm
On Friday, health authorities announced that four people had died from the Ebola virus in three days. All deaths and cases were recorded in Mubindi district, about 150 kilometers west of the capital, Kampala.
The Ministry of Health announced on Twitter on Sunday that 16 cases of Ebola had been identified since the beginning of the epidemic and that “cases were identified outside of Mebendi”, three in Kiigwa and one in Kasanda in the center of the country.
“So far, no cases have been confirmed in Kampala,” the health authorities said.
Uganda previously experienced an outbreak of Ebola, a disease that has killed thousands across Africa since it was discovered in 1976 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Travel restrictions on non-essential businesses in Mubindi district, the epicenter of the outbreak, have been imposed,” Health Ministry spokeswoman Emma Ainbiona told AFP Friday.
On Tuesday, health authorities in this African country in the Great Lakes region announced the death of a 24-year-old man from Ebola, the first since 2019.
The World Health Organization announced, on Tuesday, that the case of the deceased came from a “relatively rare” Sudanese strain, which has not been reported in Uganda since 2012.
Ebola virus disease is often fatal, but there are now vaccines and treatments against this hemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted to humans by infected animals.
It is transmitted to humans through bodily fluids, and the main symptoms are fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea. Infected people become contagious only after symptoms appear, after an incubation period of 2 to 21 days.
The disease has six different strains, three of which (Bondibugyo, Sudan, Zaire) have already caused major epidemics.
