[Ed.note] This is extremely serious and dangerous. Breaking news from allAfrica:
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.
[Ed.note] The rise of these super-virus killers like AIDS, SARS, Ebola, are literally killing millions of people. Is this because of overpopulation?
Tags: Africa | SARS | Uganda | AIDS | DISEASES | Ebola | Killer Virus | Life | pfgbest. pfgbestwatch
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