Second meeting of the World Health Organization on the Ebola virus in Uganda: NPR

The World Health Organization is studying the possibility of declaring the current Ebola outbreak in Central Africa a global health crisis following the spread of new cases in Uganda from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where the disease has already killed nearly 1,400 people.

The WHO announced on Tuesday that a 5-year-old boy who had traveled from Congo with his family to Uganda had died as a result of the disease. On Thursday, an official from the Ugandan Ministry of Health said that a second patient, the boy's grandmother, was also dead.

Ugandan Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng said local officials were on alert to prevent the spread of the disease.

"I'm worried because Ebola in the country is not something to be taken lightly, because Ebola means death," she told the BBC.

"Uganda has been preparing for ten months and you have seen how quickly we have been able to detect these cases, isolate them and prepare a response," said Aceng.

According to the Associated Press, citing the Congo Ministry of Health, a dozen family members of the boy also had Ebola symptoms and were placed in isolation. However, six of them managed to leave while waiting to be transferred to a treatment center.

A panel of WHO experts on the epidemic was scheduled to meet for the third time Friday in Geneva, where it will discuss the desirability of declaring a global health emergency.

The latest outbreak of Ebola, concentrated in northeastern Congo, was declared in August. According to Doctors Without Borders, it is "by far the most important" of the 10 outbreaks of this type that have occurred in the country in the last 40 years.

At the same time, Rwanda, a neighboring country of the DRC and Uganda, says it is tightening its borders with both countries and that the government is urging people not to visit the affected areas , according to the state-supported newspaper The new time.

Earlier this year, Rwanda announced that it would begin distributing an experimental Ebola vaccine to front-line health workers to prevent the disease from entering its territory. In addition, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has encouraged its public to obtain the vaccine, reassuring it of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, Aceng said in a statement.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, saliva and vomit. The first symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches and chills. Later symptoms may include internal bleeding, vomiting and coughing up blood. On average, half of people who contract the Ebola virus die from the disease.