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Biosecurity Briefing
Uganda Seeks Coordinated Response to Ebola Outbreak By Kunal Rambhia, December 12, 2007 On December 6, 2007, Reuters reported that at least 22 people have died and up to 93 have been infected with Ebola as the virus spreads in western Uganda. Among the dead are four medical personnel who treated infected patients. This outbreak is believed to be caused by “a previously unrecorded type of Ebola, making it a fifth strain.”1 This new strain causes high fever and less hemorrhaging and, so far, has a lower mortality rate than the other known strains. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MoH), district health officials, and international partners to form a national task force to coordinate the response to the outbreak.2 The Agence France-Presse reported on December 4 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent five experts from Atlanta to the Bundibugyo district, the epicenter of the outbreak. Ugandan officials anticipate the arrival of approximately 30 more international health experts by Thursday, December 6. Local districts are implementing preventative measures to prevent the outbreak from spreading. The Ugandan government reports that “a health ministry team was in the western province pleading with villagers not to touch the sick patients and isolate them.”3 A Ugandan online news service reports that the hospital in Fort Portal in the Kabarole district “will no longer admit Ebola cases for fear of infecting other patients.” Instead, a health center located 10 kilometers from town will function as the treatment center for Ebola patients. Local authorities also called for hotel, restaurant, and lodge operators to take infection control precautions such as increasing use of disinfectants in cleaning, providing running water, and removing hand towels for drying hands. In the Hoima district, authorities have closed their district to visitors from the affected Bundibugyo and Kabarole districts. They formed a surveillance committee and 15-person Ebola task force to respond to cases of Ebola. Officials also chose to send patients to an isolation center instead of the local hospital. The single case of Ebola in the Hoima district came from a region that “hosts Kyangwali resettlement camp, which has over 7,000 Sudanese, Congolese and Rwandan refugees.”4 Other districts have taken measures that include banning inter-district travel and business; closing bars that sell malwa, a locally brewed alcoholic beverage; cancelling celebrations; suspending international programs; and raising salaries of medical workers, burial teams, and drivers that are deployed in the isolation centers.4 References
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