Uganda villages under quarantine as Ebola outbreak kills 14 people

Ugandan authorities on Monday put under quarantine, three villages, and some medical staff at the national referral hospital — Mulago — after an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus at the weekend killed 14 people.

President Yoweri Museveni and health officials on Monday confirmed two cases have since been reported in the capital, with one victim reported dead in Kampala’s Mulago Hospital after the latest outbreak started in Uganda’s western district of Kibaale, 125 miles west of Kampala, and around 50 kilometres from the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

Seven doctors and 13 health workers at Mulago Hospital are in quarantine after “at least one or two cases” were taken there, with one later dying from the virus.

The villages were identified as Nyanswiga, Kibaari, Kisindiizi, all in the western Uganda district of Kibaale.

Mr Museveni in an advisory to the nation on Monday banned physical contact by among other things, avoiding shaking hands and kissing.

“Do not take on burying somebody who has died from symptoms which look like Ebola. Instead call the health workers to be the ones to do it, and avoid promiscuity because these sicknesses can also go through sex,” Mr Museveni said in a statement.

“When you contact each other physically, then Ebola spreads through sweat, through saliva in case you kiss, blood in exchange of blood, vomiting in case you touch the vomit of somebody who is sick or diarrhoea, urine, sexual fluids etc. All those transmit it,” President Museveni said.

Meanwhile the number of Ebola patients in Kibaale District has increased from three as of Sunday to seven on Monday and they are all currently admitted to an isolation ward at Kagadi hospital.

Ministry of health spokesperson Ms Rukia Nakamatte said health officials have obtained seven new samples from suspected patients and are being analysed at the Ugandan Virus Research Institute.

Acting director-general of health services in Uganda Dr Denis Lwamafa on Monday confirmed that among the 14 dead so far, include the clinical officer who attended to the first ebola victim at Kibaale health centre and her baby.

Another 38-year-old female, a sister to the deceased clinical officer is still admitted at Kagadi Hospital where a ward has been designated for Ebola patients.

On Monday, the Uganda ministry of health officials banned any further referral of Ebola patients from Kibaale district to Mulago hospital in Kampala with immediate effect as a way to contain the spread.

“The disease must be handled locally to contain the spread, and we cannot accept this stampede at Mulago because all services will be at stand still,” said Dr Lwamafa.

The rare haemorrhage disease, named after a small river in DR Congo, killed 37 people in western Uganda in 2007 and claimed the lives of at least 170 people in the north of the country in 2000.