New Ebola Cases Reported in Uganda as Health Officials Work to Contain the Outbreak
Four weeks after declaring an outbreak, Ugandan health officials confirmed 11 new cases of Ebola. The new cluster of cases occurred in the country’s capital city of Kampala, where an infected man visited a hospital for treatment. The new set of cases were all linked to this infected person, who later died at the hospital. To date 75 cases and 28 deaths have been confirmed in nationwide. Containing this outbreak is challenging partly because this Ebola variant is resistant to vaccines. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported over 1,800 Ebola people who have come into contact with suspected or confirmed Ebola cases. The virus is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids of someone who is infected or by touching contaminated materials. Infections present as hemorrhagic fever and can cause muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes internal and external bleeding. Uganda has endured multiple Ebola outbreaks since 2000, the worst of which took the lives of 11,000 people in from 2014-2016.
Full Story: Associated Press