KAMPALA, Oct 12 (NNN-KBC) — An Ebola patient has died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, the health ministry has confirmed – the 19th victim in the current outbreak of the deadly virus but the first to die in Kampala.
There have been 54 confirmed cases in Uganda but no others have been recorded in the city.
Twenty people have recovered including five medics from the first hospital where a case was treated. They were discharged on Tuesday.
The person who died in Kampala was already known to the authorities as having potentially come into contact with the virus.
He was from outside the city but Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said the man ran away from his village, disguised his identity and visited a traditional healer in a different region.
He died at Kiruddu National Referral Hospital last Friday, but the death has only just been confirmed.
Forty-two people who he may have come into contact with have been identified and are being followed up.
Dr Aceng added that there are currently no other confirmed Ebola cases in Kampala, although the city and surrounding districts are considered high risk.
The outbreak began in September in Mubende district, 80km west of the capital.
A 24-year-old-man was the first known Ebola death, and six members of his family also died. Four health workers have also been among the victims, including a doctor from Tanzania.
No effective Ebola vaccine is available yet, because the Sudan strain circulating in central Uganda is different to the Zaire strain that has afflicted West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo and which can be immunised against. — NNN-KBC
