Outbreaks hit Uganda

Last updated: Friday, December 07, 2007 Print

Multiple outbreaks - excluding Ebola - have killed at least 33 people in Uganda in the past three weeks, straining the country's health facilities, an official said Thursday.

The extremely contagious cholera, plague, meningitis and hepatitis outbreaks are wending through the country's western and northwestern regions, leaving hundreds of infections, health ministry spokesman Paul Kaggwa told AFP.

Cholera has killed 12 of the 569 cases in western Hoima and northwestern Nebbi district. plague has killed 19 of the 139 cases in Nebbi and northwestern Arua district.

Hepatitis has killed two of the 32 cases in northern Kitgum district while no one has died of the 255 meningitis cases in Arus district, Kaggwa added.

The new fatalities were announced as health teams were battling another stubborn microbe: Ebola, a blood-borne disease with up to 90 percent fatality and whose mutation has stunned scientists.

Ebola claims 22
Ebola that broke out in September in western Bundibugyo district has killed 22 of the 93 infected people as the microbe is borne through the region, where sterile techniques are rare, thus making hospitals unsafe.

The new outbreak was spurred by an unknown type of Ebola that kills its victims without the disease's trademark haemorrhage from all body orifices. – (Sapa-AFP)

December 2007