Via Xinhua: Deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever breaks out in central Uganda. Excerpt:
The deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever has broken out in the central Ugandan district of Luwero about one month after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the East African country free of the disease.
Joaquim Saweka, the WHO country representative told Xinhua by telephone on Wednesday that the outbreak was confirmed on Tuesday following laboratory tests that turned out positive for the disease.
"Yes that is true, we have dispatched one team to make preliminary assessment and also set up an isolation unit," he said.
The epicenter of the outbreak is in Sombwe Parish, Nyimbwa Sub County, Luwero district which is located about 40km north of the capital Kampala.
Joseph Okware, the Luwero District Health Officer was quoted by Daily Monitor on Wednesday as saying that two people belonging to the same family had died of the disease over the weekend.
The outbreak comes at a time when the country is still experiencing the deadly Marburg fever in several parts of western Uganda.
In July this year the Ebola outbreak in the Midwestern Ugandan district of Kibaale left at least 20 people dead.
I completely missed this story in today's Daily Monitor, but it turned up after a search. So we now have two confirmed Ebola deaths and two suspected deaths that tested negative for Marburg (but weren't tested for Ebola). The Monitor mentions in passing that Marburg continues in western Uganda, though we haven't seen any reports on it for several days.
Update: Further to Marburg, New Vision has a report today that the disease is under control. It makes no mention of the new Ebola outbreak.
