Uganda
Ebola victim number rises to 94 

afrol.com, 18 October - As of 18 October, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported 94 cases, including 39 deaths of the feared Ebola haemorrhagic fever. The cases are still focused on Aswa county and Gulu municipality in Gulu district of Northern Uganda. Unconfirmed reports of cases in a neighbouring district of Kitgum are being investigated by a operational task force of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A National Task Force for the Control of Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers has been established under the authority of the Ministry of Health, with WHO coordinating the international response to the outbreak. Teams from Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) International, Epicentre (France) and WHO Collaborating Centre at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (United States) are participating in the response.

Surveillance is under way in Gulu and isolation facilities are in place. Training courses for district health personnel in unaffected districts will be held, WHO reports from Uganda.

Three WHO staff members - two epidemiologists and one laboratory specialist - are already working in the area, while another epidemiologist and a clinician from WHO Headquarters in Geneva have arrived in Uganda with protective clothing for health care workers on the ground, the agency announced yesterday. 

Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) reports that it has sent an exploratory mission to Gulu, due to arrive today. The four person team is currently comprised of three medical staff and one logistician and the initial activities will focus on: education; case finding; case isolation and contact training in the Gulu district. The team includes members with experience dealing with hemmorhagic fevers, including Marburg.

An additional three MSF members are being sent to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to reinforce staff there. A stand-by team is also being prepared that will go to Uganda if necessary. In addition, 2.000 kgs of material has been sent to the field including hemorraghic kits composed of; sample gathering equipment, medicines and protective clothing, MSF reports.

One of the most severe viral diseases known to humankind, Ebola fever causes death in 50 to 90 per cent of cases and is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected persons. It was first identified in 1976 in a western equatorial province of the Sudan and in a nearby region of Zaire, now Democratic Republic of the Congo. In all, nearly 1.100 cases with over 800 deaths have been documented since the virus was discovered. 

More female victims
According to the The International Herald Tribune, Ugandan officials have informed that there is a 2-to-1 ratio of female victims, something which might be explained by the traditional role women play in caring for the sick and preparing bodies for burial. 

Another agency evacuates
Catholic Relief Services yesterday pulled its national and international staff out of Gulu. The staff was evacuated to the capital city Kampala. 

"We have to take measures to protect our staff as the disease appears to be spreading," said Executive Director Ken Hackett. Hackett added that the CRS staff in Gulu were supporting a significant agriculture project that will obviously be interrupted until the Ebola outbreak stabilizes. "We are, however, continuing to support the health interventions of the Catholic hospitals in Gulu and have offered to provide any additional support they may require to deal with the Ebola outbreak," Hackett said. 

Besides functioning as the project sub-office for Uganda, Gulu was also the base for all receipt, dispatch and inventory of food commodities meant for food distributions to two camps in southern Sudan that are inaccessible from Kenya. Catholic Relief Services has been operational in Uganda since 1980. 

Source: Based on WHO, CRS and MSF

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