New Vision (Kampala)

Uganda: Ebola - Death Toll Rises to 17

Photo: New Vision
Medical workers in protective gear leave an Ebola isolation camp during the 2007 outbreak (file photo).

ONE more person is suspected to have died of the deadly Ebola virus in Kagadi hospital, while other two patients have been admitted to the hospital's isolation ward today.

"The patient had been admitted in the isolation ward, with signs of having contracted Ebola. But, he unfortunately died in the evening, on arrival in the isolation ward," Dr. Dan Kyamanywa, who is Kibaale's district health officer, revealed.

This brings the death toll to 17, and the suspected patients admitted to 31, according to Dr. Kyamanywa.

Only two patients out of those admitted were on Wednesday confirmed to have contracted Ebola. Three others were earlier this week also confirmed to have contracted Ebola, after laboratory tests were conducted. A total of seven more specimens were on Wednesday picked from the patients admitted at the isolation facility bringing the total number of samples collected since the outbreak to 37, according to Dr. Lwamafa. Results are to be released soon.

The samples are currently being investigated at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe. The health ministry's surveillance team in Kibaale district is actively and closely following up to 232 people suspected to have got into contact with the dead and sick. They continue to monitored even though they have not showed any symptoms of the disease yet.

More so, in Kibaale district, one of the prisoners, who had been admitted in the isolation ward, escaped and is yet to be found. An inter-ministerial committee on Ebola has been formed to coordinate the management of the epidemic.

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