Nine fresh cases of Ebola recorded in Kampala

Nine fresh Ebola cases have been confirmed in the Ugandan capital Kampala, bringing the total number of known infections to 14 in the last two days.

This was confirmed on Monday by Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng.

The outbreak began in September in a rural part of central Uganda and spread to Kampala, a city of more than 1.6 million people, by a man who came from the Kassanda district to seek medical treatment and later died.

In a tweet, Aceng said that seven of the nine who tested positive on Sunday were family members of the man who died and were from the Kampala neighbourhood of Masanafu.

Another is a health worker who treated the man and his wife in a private clinic, she said.

“Fellow Ugandans, let’s be vigilant. Report yourself if you have had contact or know of a person who has had contact,” Aceng said in her tweet.

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Health ministry spokesperson, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, said all the patients in Kampala were in isolation when they became symptomatic, reducing any chance of them passing on the virus.

Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

According to statements by the health ministry and the World Health Organisation, there have been more than 90 confirmed and probable cases in Uganda since the start of the outbreak, including at least 44 deaths.

The virus that is circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain that spread during recent outbreaks in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ebola generally kills about half of the people it infects. Its symptoms include intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat, vomiting and diarrhoea.