A World Health Organization official has stated that the Ebola outbreak in Uganda is now “under control.” However, a prisoner suspected of being infected with the deadly virus managed to escape from a hospital, spurring fears of further contagion. The inmate’s test results are yet to be determined. “Should his results come back and he is positive, that causes us a lot of worry,” Dr. Jackson Amune, a commissioner at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, was quoted by CNN as saying.
The prisoner broke out on Friday night, prompting hospital officials to handcuff the four remaining prisoners to their beds. The prisoners are among the 30 people suspected of carrying Ebola at a hospital in the western town of Kagadi, the center of the outbreak. “We do expect the number of suspected cases to increase,” Dr. Dan Kyamanywa, a local health officer, noted. “It's important to break transmission and reduce the number of contacts that suspected cases have.” In the meantime, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, said the disease was “under control.”
“The structure put in place is more than adequate,” he told reporters in the capital Kampala. “We are isolating the suspected or confirmed cases.” He went on say that everyone known to have had contact with Ebola victims has been isolated. He also said that Ugandan health officials have written up a so-called “Ebola contact list,” containing the names of 176 people who had even the slightest contact with those infected with Ebola.
MORE ON THE STORY
01.08, 18:23
Ugandan authorities are struggling to contain an outbreak of Ebola in the western provinces of the country. Suspected cases are refusing treatment, fearing they may get infected with the virus in hospital if they don’t already have it.
30.07, 19:14
The Ugandan Government has created an emergency task force to deal with an outbreak of the Ebola virus. Dozens of terrified patients have fled hospitals afraid of contracting the disease, making quarantine near-impossible.
28.05.2010, 16:13
Researchers have found a way to make test monkeys totally resistant to the deadly Ebola virus, which normally has a 90% mortality rate, but there are limits to how it can be used to stop outbreaks.
28.07, 00:03
The Pentagon’s DARPA lab has announced a milestone, but it doesn’t involve drones or death missiles. Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency say they’ve produced 10 million doses of an influenza vaccine in only one month’s time.
20.04, 10:51
Hanoi has asked the World Health Organization for help to cure a virulent disease affecting children. Symptoms include blistering on hands, feet and mouths accompanied by high fever and eventual organ failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment