Sixty-three confirmed and probable cases have been reported in the Ebola
outbreak in
Uganda, including 29 deaths, the World Health Organization said
Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented that the outbreak, declared
two weeks ago, was taking a deadly toll on health workers as well as patients.
There are six species of the Ebolavirus genus and the one circulating in
Uganda is the Sudan ebolavirus -- for which there is currently no vaccine.
"So far, 63 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, including
29 deaths," Tedros told a press conference in Geneva.
"Ten health workers have been infected and four have died. Four people
have recovered and are receiving follow-up care."
The east African nation's Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said that a
58-year-old anaesthetist had died of Ebola early Wednesday, following the
deaths of a Tanzanian doctor, a health assistant and a midwife.
- Candidate vaccines
-
Tedros said the vaccines used successfully to curb recent outbreaks of the
Zaire ebolavirus species in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
did not provide cross-protection against the Sudan ebolavirus.
"However, several vaccines are in various stages of development against
this virus, two of which could begin clinical trials in Uganda in the coming
weeks, pending regulatory and ethics approvals from the Ugandan
government," he said.
There are at least six candidate vaccines against the Sudan species, of
which three have made it far enough to be tested on humans, producing so-called
Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity data.
They could "proceed to be used in the field in a sort of ring
vaccination campaign", WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.
She mentioned a candidate vaccine from the University of Oxford and another
from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and said which one goes into trials may
depend on which one actually has doses ready to deploy.
"Realistically it may take another four to six weeks," she said.
Swaminathan said plans were also afoot for testing potential therapeutics.
- WHO sending
specialists, resources -
The initial outbreak was discovered in the central district of Mubende.
There are gold mines in the Mubende area which attract people from across
Uganda, as well as other countries, the WHO's Africa regional office said.
"The mobile nature of the population in Mubende increases the risk of a
possible spread of the virus," it said.
Infections have since been found in Kassanda, Kyegegwa and Kagadi districts.
The WHO's Geneva headquarters has released $2 million from its contingency
fund for emergencies and is working with partners to support the health
ministry by sending additional specialists, supplies and resources, Tedros
said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has vowed not to impose any lockdowns to
tackle the disease, saying last week that there was "no need for
anxiety".
- Haemorrhagic
fever -
Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever named after a river in DR
Congo where it was discovered in 1976.
Human transmission is through bodily fluids, with the main symptoms being
fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.
Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.
People who are infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear,
which is after an incubation period of between two and 21 days.
Uganda has experienced several Ebola outbreaks, most recently in 2019 when
at least five people died.
The neighbouring DRC last week declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak
that emerged in eastern North Kivu province six weeks ago.
The worst epidemic, in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, killed more than
11,300 people. The DRC has had more than a dozen epidemics, the deadliest
killing 2,280 people in 2020.
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