Medical workers wearing protective suits take part in a training prior to leave to countries affected by the Ebolas virus, in an empty factory warehouse in Amsterdam, on November 5, 2014 where medicals aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) created a mock clinic. The disease has killed nearly 5,000 people, almost all of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. AFP PHOTO/ANP/BAS CZERWINSKI-netherlands out- (Photo credit should read BAS CZERWINSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
September 26, 2022
Uganda said on Sunday its Ebola caseload has jumped to 16 people while a further 18 people also likely had the disease, fuelling fears of a spreading outbreak that involves a strain for which a vaccine has not yet been found.
In a tweet, the ministry of health also said the death toll of confirmed cases remained four while 17 others classified as probable cases had also died. The outbreak had also now spread to three districts, all in central Uganda.
The current outbreak, attributed to the Ebola Sudan strain, appears to have started in a small village in Mubende district around the beginning of September, authorities have said.
The first casualty was a 24-year old man who died earlier this week.
The World Health Organization says the Ebola Sudan strain is less transmissible and has shown a lower fatality rate in previous outbreaks than Ebola Zaire, a strain that killed nearly 2,300 people in the 2018-2020 epidemic in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
REUTERS
