Tabu Butagira, Hussein Bogere, and Joseph Mugisa
8 December 2007
THE government yesterday announced that suspected cases of the lethal Ebola hemorrhagic fever have been reported in seven more districts.
State Minister for Primary Healthcare, Dr Emmanuel Otaala said eight sporadic alert cases have been registered in the districts of Adjumani in West Nile, Mbale in the east, Masaka and Mubende in Buganda region and Kasese, Fort Portal (Kabarole) and Kanungu in western Uganda; implying the whole country is now under Ebola siege.
The case in Adjumani involves a UPDF soldier who couldn't easily be identified. But Dr Otaala said :"Alert cases do not necessarily mean they are (confirmed) cases of Ebola but they ring a bell in our minds that there is something to investigate," the minister said.
Dr Otaala said reported Ebola infections countrywide since August had surged to 101 while deaths from the virulent disease stagnated at 22.
The Cabinet in an emergency sitting chaired by Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi yesterday approved Shs6 billion to handle the spate of Ebola, plague, meningococcal meningitis, suspected cholera and yellow fever/Hepatitis A epidemics currently ravaging different parts of the country.
But as Ebola threatens to engulf the whole country, acting government spokesman Dr. James Nsaba Buturo said cabinet threw out pleas by lawmakers on Thursday that a state of emergency be urgently declared to draw international attention to the exploding incurable hemorrhagic fever.
"The work (declaration of) state of emergency is not in our vocabulary because we (government) are on top of things (containing the epidemic)," Dr Buturo said.
But it emerged yesterday that Mr Moses Natukunda, a guard with Delta Security suspected to be ill with Ebola was on Thursday night admitted to Mulago Isolation Ward; the same unit where Kikyo Health centre IV Medical Superintendent Dr. Jonah Kule died of the viral hemorrhagic fever three days ago.
"He (Natukunda) was brought in by his employers, Delta Security, after vomiting and passing out blood," Dr Ayati Omoruto, a community health officer at Mulago Hospital said.
A group of Kyambogo University students who had moved to attend a funeral of a relative in the Ebola hit western Uganda have caused a scare at the campus, forcing Ministry of Health officials to put them under medical observation.
The Director General of Health services, Sam Zaramba said an elaborate surveillance network had been established to trace prior contacts of all victims and now a total of 338 persons are being monitored to establish if they are in gestation period of the contagion.
President Yoweri Museveni, while speaking at the on-going Kampala City of God Crusade at Kololo Airstrip on Thursday warned Ugandans to wave but not shake hands while greeting.
Minister Otaala, himself a medical doctor, told a media briefing yesterday that cabinet had established a new Emergency Fund to be under the docket of the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness to which the Treasury will annually allocate money to cater for epidemic control.
He said the Cabinet had also directed that the risk allowance for health workers battling Ebola, be increased from the Sh20, 000 - 40, 000 to a higher figure that is yet to be established.
Dr Otaala said the government would expedite compensation payment to the families of the six medics who died while treating Ebola patients and ensure full protection for volunteer doctors and nurses in the Ebola zone so that none contracts the killer fever again.
"I am going to write to the Mufti (Sheik Shaban Mubajje) to inform his subjects; the Muslims not to wash dead bodies and the corpses should instead be put in bags and buried immediately by trained health workers," Dr Otaala said.
In Bundibugyo; the epicentre of the epidemic, anxious and panic stricken residents have resorted to using an unnamed local medicinal plant, which they deem to be effective in treating Ebola.
The Ministry of Health says there were a total of 39 admissions of suspected Ebola cases at Bundibugyo hospital and Kikyo health centre IV.
"On a positive note three people who were admitted are ready for discharge. Of the three, two are in Bundibugyo Hospital and one in Kikyo Isolation Unit," the ministry statement said.
The known symptoms of Ebola include; sudden onset of high fever, diarrhoea, vomiting associated with red eyes and a measles-like rash.
The disease is spread through contact with body fluids of infected persons or people who have died of Ebola. Anybody handling suspected cases must use appropriate protective wear including masks, gowns, gumboots and gloves and afterwards wash hands with Jik detergent. Daily Monitor will keep the public informed of any new developments.
In Kampala major hospitals and health centres have taken precautionary measures to stem the spread of Ebola. All major hospitals have set up isolation units from where they can refer cases to Mulago Hospital. Hospital workers and community leaders are also being educated on the early warning practices.
Kampala City Council Health Director Mesach Mubiru says nurses from all the 10 KCC clinics in the five divisions have been trained to identify and handle suspected Ebola cases .
Travelers have been advised to avoid, if possible the western districts of Bundibugyo, Fort Portal and Kasese.
According to the National chairman of the Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association, Mr John Ndyomugyenyi, drivers and passengers alike have been alerted about a possible spread of the epidemic.
But in the city's numerous slums, little effort has been made to educate the people about the epidemic. In Katanga slum, at Wandegeya, residents have not taken any precautionary step against the epidemic.
Even with Katanga's high concentration of people, the leadership here says the dwellers have not yet received any sensitisation on Ebola. Mr Ssekadebe Karugaba, the LC 1 chairman in Katanga said the biggest problem is in educating the population about the disease and how it is transmitted.
Mr Karugaba says business is still going on as usual and communal drinking of local brew where people share tubes is still practiced.
This kind of drinking exposes people to the disease because Ebola can also be transmitted through fluids like saliva.
Ms Florence Namubiru ,a local brew seller in this slum says the Ebola scare has not yet affected her business because customers are still coming in. "People still come to my bar," she says.
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For western investors, after seeing a lot of sci-fi movies, this is one more reason to stay away from Uganda. The government needs to be on the top of this.