Uganda has confirmed seven cases of Ebola, as authorities try to track down 43 contacts of known Ebola patients – two days after the East African country announced an outbreak of the contagious disease.
The cases confirmed on Thursday include a 24-year-old man who died this week after he developed a high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pain, in addition to vomiting blood. After initially being treated for malaria, he was diagnosed as having contracted the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus
Seven other deaths are being investigated as suspected cases of a strain for which the authorities do not yet have a vaccine, officials said.
“As of today, we have seven confirmed cases, of whom we have one confirmed death,” Kyobe Henry Bbosa, Ebola incident commander at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, told a briefing.
“But also we have seven probable cases that died before the confirmation of the outbreak.”
He also spoke of a “rapidly evolving” situation where “we think cases may rise in a few days”.
Ugandan authorities have not yet found the source of the outbreak, or “patient zero” – the key first case.
But they were able to pinpoint the epicentre of the outbreak, which is the central Ugandan district of Mubende, whose main town lies along a highway into the capital, Kampala. That travel link and several crowded artisanal gold mines there are concerning, Bbosa told the World Health Organization.
Authorities have also been able to confirm an Ebola outbreak of the Sudan type earlier this week after testing a sample from the 24-year-old man who died. Six others in the same area, including three children, died earlier in September after suffering what local officials called a “strange illness”.
Ebola, which is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials, manifests as a deadly haemorrhagic fever. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.