Uganda confirms Ebola outbreak after patient dies

An outbreak of Ebola has been declared in Uganda after health authorities confirmed a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain, the government and the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

 

“We want to inform the country that we have an outbreak of Ebola, which we confirmed yesterday,” Diana Atwine, the health ministry’s permanent secretary, told a news conference on Tuesday.

 

The patient with the confirmed case, a 24-year-old man in Uganda’s central Mubende district, showed symptoms and later died.

 

Atwine said the man had a high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and was vomiting blood. He had initially been treated for malaria.

 

There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility, the WHO’s Africa office said in a statement, adding that it was helping Uganda’s health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.