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Cases of haemorrhagic fever are still on the rise in Uganda. Some have been identified in two other towns, in the east in Kassanda, and in the west in the town of Kyegegwa, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Sunday (September 25th). The overall toll is now 34 cases, including 21 fatal. No cases have so far been confirmed in the capital Kampala.
The majority of Ebola cases occurred in Mubende, in the center of the country, on focus of the epidemic in Uganda. This busy area is full of gold mines. It attracts people from all over the country but also from the sub-region.
The disease, which comes from a so-called “Sudanese” strain, has been circulating since early September, Ebola response coordinator Henry Kyobe confirmed at a WHO meeting on Thursday (22 September). But the epidemic was not announced until Tuesday, September 20after a 24-year-old man died, meaning the virus has been spreading for weeks.
Why has the response taken such a delay? Some Ugandans wonder. Others, like Rosemary Byabashaija, commissioner of Mubende district, deplores a lack of means to manage the epidemic, according to his remarks collected by the newspaper Daily Monitor.
Authorities have warned that cases of infection could increase if the population does not adhere to chealth worker instructions, especially since the origin of the epidemic remains unknown and no vaccine exists to treat the Sudanese strain of Ebola. This is the second time in ten years that Uganda has had to deal with this haemorrhagic fever.