[ 2012-09-03 ]

Uganda Ebola outbreak 'coming to an end': WHO
GENEVA (AFP) - Uganda's latest outbreak of the
deadly Ebola virus appears to be over, the World
Health Organisation said Monday, pointing out that
no new cases had been confirmed for the past
month.

"There have been no new confirmed cases of Ebola
haemorrhagic fever reported in Kibaale district,
Uganda, since August 3, 2012, indicating that the
outbreak is coming to an end," the WHO said in a
statement.

The organisation said there had been a total of 24
probable and confirmed cases, while 17 people had
died from the virus since the beginning of the
outbreak -- one more than previously reported.

Ugandan health officials said in mid-August the
outbreak was "under control", but since the
incubation period for Ebola is around 21 days they
were unable to say for certain that it was over.

The WHO stressed Monday that all probable and
confirmed cases had been monitored for 21 days or
more, adding that "the last confirmed case was
discharged on August 24 ... following recovery".

Ebola broke out in early July in Uganda's western
Kibale district, some 200 kilometres (120 miles)
from Kampala, and around 50 kilometres (30
kilometres) from the border with Democratic
Republic of Congo.

Ebola, which spreads by direct contact with the
blood or other body fluids of infected persons, is
fatal in about 50 to 90 percent of cases, with
victims bleeding from body orifices before dying
in the most severe instances.

The rare haemorrhagic disease, named after a small
river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killed
37 people in western Uganda in 2007 and at least
170 in the north of the country in 2000.

Since the latest outbreak in Uganda, at least 10
people, including three healthcare workers, have
meanwhile died of a different strain of Ebola in
the neighbouring DR Congo, the WHO said last
month.

Source - AFP

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