The Ebola outbreak declared on September 20 in Uganda has already accumulated a total of 48 confirmed cases, including 17 deaths, reported the country’s Ministry of Health.
According to the latest data released late yesterday by the Ugandan authorities, registered seven new deaths and four new cases in recent days.
“As of October 9 at 10:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT), the accumulated confirmed deaths are 48, after four new confirmed cases were registered in the last 48 hours,” the Ministry said in a statement collected by local media. .
“Infections of health workers stand at 9 confirmed cases”according to the authorities, who have already completed the 21-day follow-up of 35% of the 1,049 people identified as contacts of Ebola patients.
Last week, the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda, Yonas Tegegn, explained that the country is working on protocols to import two types of vaccines, although their effectiveness against the unusual strain has not yet been proven. of Sudan, responsible for this outbreak.
One of those vaccines is developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute (USA), while the second candidate is from researchers at the University of Oxford (UK).
”Right now, Ugandan and international scientists are working to distribute these vaccines in Uganda. But we still do not have enough data to be able to distribute them on a large scale and, in addition, supplies are scarce, ”said Tegegn in a virtual press conference last Thursday.
Unlike the Zairean strain, recorded in epidemics of the disease in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), there is still no approved vaccine for this strain.
Uganda declared an Ebola outbreak on September 20 after confirming a case in the Mubende district (center), where a 24-year-old man died of the disease caused by that virus.
The outbreak already affects five districts in the center and west of the countryTegegn specified.
The Sudan strain is not only less transmissible but also has a lower mortality (40% – 100%) than Zaire (70% – 100%).
Countries such as the DRC, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Somalia are on alert to prevent a possible spread of the virus.
Discovered in 1976 in the DRC – then called Zaire – Ebola is a serious, often fatal disease that affects humans and other primates and is transmitted by direct contact with the blood and body fluids of infected people or animals.
It causes severe bleeding and its first symptoms are sudden and high fever, severe weakness, and muscle, head, and throat pain, as well as vomiting.
The virus ravaged several West African countries from 2014 to 2016, when 11,300 people died and there were more than 28,500 cases.
(with information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com