Via IRIN Africa: UGANDA: Funding, health system constraints impede Marburg control. Excerpt:
Uganda's Ministry of Health is facing serious financial and health system constraints as it battles to contain an outbreak of Marburg haemorrhagic fever that has killed eight people in the country's southwest.
According to the Uganda Virus Research Institute, as of 27 October, nine patients - five in the southwestern district of Kabale, two in the western district of Ibanda, and two in the capital, Kampala - had tested positive for the highly infectious viral fever.
Seven student nurses who attended to a Marburg patient at Ibanda Hospital, since deceased, have been quarantined for at least 21 days. A total of 436 people who have been in contact with Marbug patients have been listed for close observation in the districts of Kabale, where the outbreak was first detected on 19 October, Ibanda, Mbarara, Rukungiri, Kabarole and Kampala.
From the same family as the Ebola virus, Marburg causes severe headaches and malaise, followed by bleeding from multiple sites. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the fatality rate for Marburg is between 23 and 90 percent. The virus, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment, is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids or tissues of infected people.
Constrained
The health ministry has drawn up a 1.85 billion Uganda shilling (about US$740,000) supplementary budget to set up temporary isolation facilities and wards, purchase drugs and protective gear, pay health workers allowances, and pay for funerals, which are being handled by health officials.
"We are constrained. We continue to lobby for support, not only financial but human resources, to address the situation," Christine Ondoa, Uganda's health minister, told IRIN. "We have approached the treasury for a supplementary budget for a faster response to the outbreak. We hope to get a positive response. We appeal to partners to come in."
"We urge the treasury to release supplementary funds to the health ministry to help reduce the risks," said Joaquim Saweka, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) country representative for Uganda. "The funds will help the ministry to implement its intervention plans. If the funds are not allocated, their efforts will be worthless."
