Uganda confirms the case of Ebola as the virus spreads from DRCongo



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Uganda is on the alert since the epidemic crossing a porous border in eastern DRC, where more than 2,000 cases of highly contagious virus have been recorded, two-thirds of which have been fatal.

"A case of Ebola has been confirmed positive," Aceng told AFP.

She stated that the patient was a boy who had traveled with his family from the city of Kasese (western Uganda) to the Democratic Republic of Congo for funerals and that he had become ill on his return.

"The boy has been placed in an isolation unit, along with other family members for surveillance purposes, and is undergoing treatment," she said.

The World Health Organization confirmed that the highly contagious virus had spread to Uganda, making it the worst epidemic of all time.

"The Ministry of Health and the WHO have sent a rapid response team to Kasese to identify other potentially exposed people and to ensure that they are monitored." and taken care of if they also fell ill, "said the WHO in a statement.

According to WHO, Uganda has vaccinated nearly 4,700 health workers in 165 facilities with an experimental drug designed to protect them from the virus.

Uganda has experienced several epidemics in the past, most recently in 2012, while in 2000, more than 200 people died as a result of an epidemic in the north of the country.

Battle against the virus

The DRC has struggled to contain the outbreak that was first reported in North Kivu province on August 1, then spread to neighboring Ituri and had done more. 1,300 dead.

Militia attacks on treatment centers and the hostility of some local populations to medical teams have been detrimental to efforts to cope with the crisis.

According to an badessment by AFP, five workers were killed and important preventive work, such as vaccination programs and the burial of Ebola victims, were delayed.

The epidemic is the tenth in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the disease was identified in 1976.

This is the worst record after an epidemic that hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016, killing more than 11,300 people.

"It is clear that the current response to fight Ebola is not working, no matter how effective the treatment is, if people do not understand it and do not understand it, they will not use it," he said. said Corinne N 'Daw, Oxfam's director for the DRC, said last week.

"Our teams still meet people every day who do not believe the Ebola virus is real … many cases go undetected because people with symptoms avoid treatment."

The Ebola virus is transmitted to wild animals and is transmitted to humans through close contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected person.

Chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelopes and porcupines can also be infected, and humans who kill and eat them can catch the virus through them.

Symptoms include high fever, severe muscle and joint pain, headache and sore throat, often followed by vomiting and diarrhea, rash, kidney and liver failure, bleeding internal and external.

At the present time, there is no licensed drug to prevent or treat Ebola, although a range of experimental drugs is under development and thousands of people have been vaccinated in the DRC and in some neighboring countries.

The average mortality rate due to Ebola is around 50%, ranging from 25 to 90%, according to WHO.

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