I've been in meetings all day at ECDC here in Stockholm, and now I'm hastening to catch up on what's evidently been a busy day. Via Reuters AlertNet: Killer disease reaches Uganda capital, five dead. Excerpt:
An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Uganda has spread to the capital Kampala after an infected woman travelled to the city and the death toll from the disease, a cousin of Ebola, climbed to five, a health official said on Monday.
The latest outbreak of another haemorrhagic fever, first confirmed on Friday in Kabale district, 430 km (270 miles) southwest of Kampala, has rattled a country that only two weeks ago declared itself free of Ebola after it claimed at least 16 lives.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the Marburg virus, also known as Marburg haemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted through bodily fluids such as saliva and blood, or by handling infected wild animals such as monkeys.
"We have one case confirmed in Mulago Hospital while the number of the dead is now five," Rukia Nakamatte, spokesperson for the ministry of health told Reuters on Monday.
"Thirty-four contacts (people are) being monitored and an isolation facility is being set up."
A health official told Reuters on Monday that the woman at Mulago, the country's largest referral hospital, had travelled to Kampala about five days ago and is a member of a family in Kabale which lost three people.
