Second Ebola death reported in Uganda – Nairobi News

A second patient has died from the Deadly Ebola Virus in Uganda. The Congolese woman who was the grandmother to the five-year-old boy who died on Tuesday, passed on on Wednesday.

The family had crossed over from the Democratic Republic of Congo into Uganda on June 9, 2019.

This after the Ugandan Ministry of Health, in a statement dated June 11, confirmed the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Kasese district.

“The child and his family entered the country through Bwera Border post and sought medical care at Kagando hospital (in Kasese, Uganda) where health workers identified Ebola as a possible cause of illness,” Ugandan Minister of Health, Aceng Jane Ruth, said in the statement.

EBOLA OUTBREAK

The boy was the first confirmed case of Ebola outside DRC since the highly infectious illness erupted last year in August.

“The grandmother also died last night,” Emmanuel Ainebyona, an official told Reuters.

According to Ainebyona, two other patients remained in isolation – the three-year-old brother of the dead boy and a 23-year-old Ugandan man who has manifested Ebola symptoms.

Test results for the 23-year old are expected later on Thursday, he said, adding that a total of 27 contacts are now being monitored.

ON HIGH ALERT

Uganda has been on high alert since last year with more than 2,000 cases of Ebola recorded.

1,357 death have been recorded in eastern DRC’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces since the outbreak.

The disease is spread mainly through contact with the bodily fluids of those infected.

Uganda has experienced several outbreaks in the past, most recently in 2012, while in 2000 more than 200 people died in yet another outbreak.