World Health Organization to Investigate Mystery Fever in Uganda as 30 Dead

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Oct 14, 2000 - 08:59 AM

World Health Organization to Investigate Mystery Fever in Uganda The Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Two experts from the World Health Organization flew to northern Uganda on Saturday to investigate and help contain the spread of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever that has killed at least 30 people in recent weeks, officials said. The two experts flew to Gulu town, 225 miles north of Kampala, where the disease is reported to be spreading fast, said Ben Ssensasi, a WHO spokesman in Kampala.

He said one expert was sent from the agency's headquarters in Geneva and the other from its office in Zimbabwe.

"They will arrive today and carry out investigations and help in containing the spread of the disease and will stay as long as possible. The information we have now is that 30 people have so far died," Ssensasi said.

He said some samples have been sent to South Africa to help identify the disease, whose victims are said to be vomiting blood.

Hemorrhagic fevers, which include the Marburg and Ebola viruses, cause high fevers and internal bleeding. In the final stages, the bleeding becomes uncontrollable.

There are fears in Gulu, a town devastated by a 14-year insurgency, that the disease may be the deadly Ebola virus, which killed 245 people in the Congolese town of Kikwit in 1995. Ebola has also been found in Uganda and Kenya, emerging only briefly and wiping out entire villages.

Scientists do not know how or why the virus flares up, but the highly contagious disease is transmitted between humans by bodily fluids.

The government-owned New Vision newspaper reported Saturday that the authorities are investigating a recent death from the mysterious disease of a Congolese woman married to a Ugandan soldier. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAETEWABEC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 14, 2000

Answers

Although it's true that the source of the ebola virus remains a mystery, endemics in the past have been blamed on poor or non- existing health infra-structure in Africa. Hospitals lacking trained personnel with few supplies have spread the disease by using the same needle for injecting patient after patient without interim sterilization (see Laurie Garrett's book recently published: Betrayal of Trust). Since we are truly a global society in the sense that infectious diseases can ride with their victims to any destination on earth in a matter of hours, it would benefit us all to establish and maintain an effective global health infrastructure.

-- vicki (smithfox@mind.net), October 14, 2000.

Sunday, October 15 5:04 AM SGT

Ugandan disease identified as Ebola virus: health ministry KAMPALA, October 14 (AFP) - The Ugandan Health Minstry said late Saturday that a mysterious disease which has killed more than 30 people in the Gulu District of northern Uganda has been identified as the Ebola virus.

"We received confirmation on Saturday night through the World Health Organisation. The blood specimens have been tested and all point to Ebola," the Uganda Director General of Health Services, Frances Omasa, told AFP.

Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal form of Viral Haemmoraghic Fever. Victims often bleed to death through the eyes, nose, mouth, rectum and genitals.

To date, 10 people have died at the Lacor mission hospital, which is located near the town of Gulu.

But doctors believe more than 30 others have died in their villages before they were able to seek medical help.

"Eighty percent of those who come in tell you that they have lost people in their families, five or six for every one that comes in," said Mathew Lukwiya, the medical director at Lacor, which has treated most of the victims.

"Often someone dies and then their relatives attend the funeral, and then you find more sick coming in."

New cases continue to arrive at the town's two hospitals, with five patients admitted to the Gulu government hospital on Saturday alone.

This is the first recorded Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and medical officials say they do not yet know how the disease reached the region.

There has been speculation in local media that the virus could have arrived with Ugandan soldiers who recently returned to Gulu after being posted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

However health officials said that there has as yet been no case of a soldier contracting the disease.

Gulu is one of the poorest and most neglected regions of Uganda. The district is at the heart of a 12-year insurgency and over a third of its popuation lives in crowded camps for displaced persons.

Hospital staff have struggled to deal with the outbreak, but lack the basic necessities such as adequate protective clothing, which has resulted in the deaths of three nurses at Lacor from the disease.

In the Gulu government hospital, ten patients are being kept in an 'isolation ward' - a run-down room without windows, with water pooling outside the door.

The Ugandan government has been slow to respond to the outbreak, and has so far done little more than sending fact-finding missions to the area.

But the health ministry pledged Saturday that it will develop a nationwide plan to battle the problem that would include public health education, protective gear and deployment of medical experts to the area.

Sunday, October 15 5:04 AM SGT

Ugandan disease identified as Ebola virus: health ministry KAMPALA, October 14 (AFP) - The Ugandan Health Minstry said late Saturday that a mysterious disease which has killed more than 30 people in the Gulu District of northern Uganda has been identified as the Ebola virus.

"We received confirmation on Saturday night through the World Health Organisation. The blood specimens have been tested and all point to Ebola," the Uganda Director General of Health Services, Frances Omasa, told AFP.

Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal form of Viral Haemmoraghic Fever. Victims often bleed to death through the eyes, nose, mouth, rectum and genitals.

To date, 10 people have died at the Lacor mission hospital, which is located near the town of Gulu.

But doctors believe more than 30 others have died in their villages before they were able to seek medical help.

"Eighty percent of those who come in tell you that they have lost people in their families, five or six for every one that comes in," said Mathew Lukwiya, the medical director at Lacor, which has treated most of the victims.

"Often someone dies and then their relatives attend the funeral, and then you find more sick coming in."

New cases continue to arrive at the town's two hospitals, with five patients admitted to the Gulu government hospital on Saturday alone.

This is the first recorded Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and medical officials say they do not yet know how the disease reached the region.

There has been speculation in local media that the virus could have arrived with Ugandan soldiers who recently returned to Gulu after being posted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

However health officials said that there has as yet been no case of a soldier contracting the disease.

Gulu is one of the poorest and most neglected regions of Uganda. The district is at the heart of a 12-year insurgency and over a third of its popuation lives in crowded camps for displaced persons.

Hospital staff have struggled to deal with the outbreak, but lack the basic necessities such as adequate protective clothing, which has resulted in the deaths of three nurses at Lacor from the disease.

In the Gulu government hospital, ten patients are being kept in an 'isolation ward' - a run-down room without windows, with water pooling outside the door.

The Ugandan government has been slow to respond to the outbreak, and has so far done little more than sending fact-finding missions to the area.

But the health ministry pledged Saturday that it will develop a nationwide plan to battle the problem that would include public health education, protective gear and deployment of medical experts to the area.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Sunday, October 15 5:04 AM SGT

Ugandan disease identified as Ebola virus: health ministry KAMPALA, October 14 (AFP) - The Ugandan Health Minstry said late Saturday that a mysterious disease which has killed more than 30 people in the Gulu District of northern Uganda has been identified as the Ebola virus.

"We received confirmation on Saturday night through the World Health Organisation. The blood specimens have been tested and all point to Ebola," the Uganda Director General of Health Services, Frances Omasa, told AFP.

Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal form of Viral Haemmoraghic Fever. Victims often bleed to death through the eyes, nose, mouth, rectum and genitals.

To date, 10 people have died at the Lacor mission hospital, which is located near the town of Gulu.

But doctors believe more than 30 others have died in their villages before they were able to seek medical help.

"Eighty percent of those who come in tell you that they have lost people in their families, five or six for every one that comes in," said Mathew Lukwiya, the medical director at Lacor, which has treated most of the victims.

"Often someone dies and then their relatives attend the funeral, and then you find more sick coming in."

New cases continue to arrive at the town's two hospitals, with five patients admitted to the Gulu government hospital on Saturday alone.

This is the first recorded Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and medical officials say they do not yet know how the disease reached the region.

There has been speculation in local media that the virus could have arrived with Ugandan soldiers who recently returned to Gulu after being posted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

However health officials said that there has as yet been no case of a soldier contracting the disease.

Gulu is one of the poorest and most neglected regions of Uganda. The district is at the heart of a 12-year insurgency and over a third of its popuation lives in crowded camps for displaced persons.

Hospital staff have struggled to deal with the outbreak, but lack the basic necessities such as adequate protective clothing, which has resulted in the deaths of three nurses at Lacor from the disease.

In the Gulu government hospital, ten patients are being kept in an 'isolation ward' - a run-down room without windows, with water pooling outside the door.

The Ugandan government has been slow to respond to the outbreak, and has so far done little more than sending fact-finding missions to the area.

But the health ministry pledged Saturday that it will develop a nationwide plan to battle the problem that would include public health education, protective gear and deployment of medical experts to the area.

http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html? s=singapore/headlines/001015/world/afp/Ugandan_disease_identified_as_E bola_virus__health_ministry.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 15, 2000.


Sunday, 15 October, 2000, 09:29 GMT 10:29 UK Ebola virus strikes Uganda

The outbreak centres on the northern town of Gulu

Ugandan health authorities are battling to contain an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus which has killed at least 31 people in the north of the country. The highly contagious disease, which broke out in the district of Gulu, causes its victims to bleed to death.

A further 57 people are known to have contracted the disease but doctors fear that many in remoter villages may have died before they could get medical help.

Efforts to tackle the outbreak have been hampered by the lack of adequate medical facilities, and the effects of a rebel activity in the region.

The government and the World Health Organisation have sent fact- finding missions to Gulu to investigate the outbreak, but so far have given little practical help.

Symptoms of the mystery illness include fever, muscle pains and bleeding from the mouth, nose and anus.

Family members die

This is the first recorded Ebola outbreak in Uganda and medical officials say they do not yet know how the disease reached Gulu.

But there has been intense speculation in the local press that the virus could have been passed by Ugandan soldiers who have recently returned from postings in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Among the first victims was reported to be a soldier who had recently returned from such a post and died on 17 September.

Days later, a woman bled to death after giving birth in a Gulu hospital.

During the following weeks, seven of her family and friends who attended her burial service were also dead.

Doctors believe they could have contracted the disease after washing their hands in the same water at her funeral.

So far 10 people have died in hospital, including three nurses treating the sick.

Inadequate facilities

The other victims have succumbed in their villages before they could get to medical help.

New arrivals continue to arrive at Gulu's two hospitals with five more people admitted on Saturday alone. Hospital staff are struggling to deal with the outbreak, but lack basic necessities like adequate protective clothing.

The situation is made worse by the fact that Gulu is at the heart of a 12-year insurgency by rebels based in neighbouring Sudan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_972000/972620.stm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 15, 2000.


16/10/2000 10:21 - (SA) Ebola 'highly virulent'

Geneva - The Ebola haemorrhagic fever is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to man, leading to death in between 50 and 90 percent of cases, according to the UN World Health Organisation (WHO).

The virus, which has at least four subtypes, is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, organs, semen or secretions of infected people, the Geneva-based organisation said.

Since the discovery of the disease in 1976, nearly 1 100 cases have been documented, 793 of which were fatal.

Transmission has also taken place through the handling of ill or dead infected chimpanzees, as was documented recently in Ivory Coast.

First symptoms include fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, limited kidney and liver functions and both internal and external bleeding.

WHO said no specific treatment or vaccine exists for Ebola haemorrhagic fever and the incubation period is between two and 21 days.

Reported cases of Ebola occurred in Sudan in 1976 and 1979, Zaire in 1976, 1977, and 1995, and Ivory Coast and Gabon in 1994 and 1996, according to the WHO.

An Ebola-like virus was isolated in monkeys held in quarantine in the United States in 1989, 1990 and 1996. - Sapa-AFP

http://news.24.com/News24/Health/Health_News/0,1113,2-14- 660_926512,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 16, 2000.


Desperate fight to stop spread of Ebola virus

International effort mobilised as toll mounts in Ugandan epidemic of horrific disease that has no cure

Anna Borzello in Kampala and Sarah Boseley Tuesday October 17, 2000

Ugandan officials yesterday threatened to use force to prevent anyone leaving three areas of the country stricken by an outbreak of deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever as an international effort was mobilised to contain the epidemic. As the World Health Organisation put the death toll at 43, including three nurses, worrying signs emerged that the epidemic might be spreading. There is no treatment for Ebola, whose victims rapidly bleed to death. Because it is highly infectious, the only hope of stopping an outbreak is isolating victims and their contacts.

Until the weekend, the victims had been restricted to a 20-mile radius of the northern Ugandan district capital of Gulu, which is 225 miles north of the capital, Kampala. However, since Saturday new cases have been reported outside the original area of infection.

"Four cases have been reported in neighbouring Kitgum district, while five people have been admitted to hospital from Pece, a suburb of Gulu town which was not affected before," said Lt Col Walter Ochoro, who heads a taskforce set up to combat the disease.

More worryingly still, two cases of Ebola have also been reported in Atiak and Amoru, two congested camps north and west of Gulu that are home to tens of thousands of people displaced by the insurgency in the region.

Oladapo Walker, Uganda's WHO representative, said: "This is a problem but we just have to do the best that we can under the circumstances.

"If we are able to quickly isolate the reported cases in the camps we should be able to contain it very quickly. But if we are not able to isolate the reported cases in the camp very quickly, that is a serious business."

Lt-Col Ochoro said that all schools in the affected areas had been ordered closed and residents were told they could not leave except for medical attention.

"We hope we will not have to use force but we are determined to beat this," he said.

International aid workers and scientists are converging on the area to support the Ugandan effort and study the disease.

The WHO has sent two Ebola experts to Gulu and two more, one epidomologist and one specialist in barrier nursing, are due to fly in today.

A public education programme has been launched, advising local people to stay away from infected people and to suspend cultural practices, such as burial rights, that might inadvertently spread the disease.

Until now, Gulu's two hospitals, which are underfunded and overstretched, have been struggling to deal with the epidemic. A shipment of medicines has been provided by the WHO, as well as protective clothing in the form of goggles, face masks and aprons.

Ebola is what is known as a filovirus - the only known virus family that scientists are profoundly ignorant about. The first filovirus infection to be identified was of the Marburg strain in 1967, when laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany were taken ill. The source of infection was identified as green monkeys imported from Africa for use in research.

Monkeys appear to have been the source of the virus in each outbreak of Ebola, which first appeared in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was named after the river Ebola. Since then, there have been outbreaks in Sudan, Zaire, Cote d'Ivoire and the Gabon in Africa.

A filovirus named Ebola-Reston was identified in monkeys in Manila awaiting export and among monkeys in quarantine in the US. A laboratory worker in Britain became ill when he pricked his finger on an infected needle in 1976.

So far all the major out breaks have been relatively easily contained. Never before has there been an epidemic in such a densely populated area as Gulu.

Laboratory experiments have shown that the virus can be transmitted through water particles in the air, although it is more likely that people become infected by eating monkeys or touching infected animals or humans.

Nobody has yet established what happens to the virus between epidemics. The last outbreak, in the Gabon, was in 1996.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,383670,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 17, 2000.



Tuesday, 17 October, 2000, 14:45 GMT 15:45 UK Aid workers evacuate Ebola region

International non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are pulling aid workers out of northern Uganda in fear of an Ebola outbreak that has killed at least 43 people. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has evacuated its international staff from Gulu to the capital Kampala, 225 miles away, and instructed its local staff to stay at home or leave the affected area.

The disease appears to be spreading in northern Uganda The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Save the Children have also evacuated workers, and local press reports say that the Catholic Relief Service, International Organisation for Migration and Action Contre la Faim have done the same.

"We have to take measures to protect our staff," said Oddhild Gunther, head of the NRC's International Department.

The ICRC said it did not expect its four workers to return to northern Uganda before the beginning of November.

Outbreak spreading

The NGOs are pulling out as the disease appears to be spreading.

While the outbreak appeared to be confined to the town of Gulu at first, there have now been cases reported in neighbouring Kitgum district and in a suburb of Gulu. Reinforcements on the way Infectious diseases control expert Diarrhoea nursing expert CDC-run diagnostic laboratory 300 kilogrammes of supplies, including gumboots, goggles, disposable gloves, and disinfectants

Cases have also been reported in the Atiak and Amoru refugee camps.

"It will be very difficult if it has spread there, Ms Gunther said.

"They are piled together," she said of the people in the camps. "It will be a devastating experience."

International aid

Experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been sent to Uganda to help fight the outbreak.

Germany, Ireland, Italy and Japan have pledged funds to pay for the rapid-response team.

But although the WHO has also sent medicine and protective clothing, hospitals in the region are overwhelmed.

Gulu district is one of the poorest areas of Uganda.

Uganda's Ministry of Health has established a national task force to fight the outbreak.

Officials have said they can contain the outbreak and have asked people not to panic.

They have also established a public education programme to teach people how to avoid spreading the disease.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_976000/976204.stm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 18, 2000.


Funerals banned as ebola terror spreads

Gulu, Uganda: Funerals have been banned and schools closed in this part of Uganda as 10 more Ebola cases turned up yesterday and the death toll from the deadly virus reached 37.

Doctors are diagnosing about 10 new cases a day, said Dr. Nestor , a World Health Organisation epidemiologist in Gulu, 360 km north of Kampala, the capital.

``It is still spreading until we can get people into the field and identify all of those infected,'' said. ``We cannot get a trend yet - it is still very early.''

Health workers and Red Cross volunteers took crash courses on containing the epidemic before heading out to warn residents about the extremely infectious disease.

At Lacquer Hospital, nurses and physicians donned surgical gear to attend to patients taken to a spartan, communal isolation ward where they were made comfortable as the disease took its course.

Ebola victims typically bleed to death within two weeks of showing the first flu-like symptoms. There is no cure for the fever, which kills 90 per cent of its victims. It is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids.

The total number of cases has risen to 81, with 37 people confirmed dead from the disease in Gulu district, officials said.

The outbreak has been traced to a woman who died in early September, said Acute Lacked, acting director of health services. The woman's daughter and mother died soon after, and mourners who participating in ritual cleansing at their funerals took the disease back to their neighbourhoods, where it spread like wildfire, Lacked said.

The first case turned up at Lacquer Hospital on October 8, Lieutenant- Colonel Walter Alcohol said.

Uganda has never before had an Ebola outbreak so few recognise the disease or know how to treat it without getting infected. Funerals have since been banned, he said.

Ebola kills with shocking speed. Four days after exposure, flu-like symptoms set in, followed by bloody diarrhoea and vomiting. Ten to 15 days later, victims ``bleed out'' through the nose, mouth and other bodily orifices. Blood and other bodily fluids also begin seeping through the skin, producing painful blisters.

Gulu was in desperate need of disinfectant, disposable gloves and garments, and body bags to stem spread of the disease, Alcohol said.

There were reports that two people have died of the disease in neighbouring Kitgum district, but those cases have not been confirmed.

Two experts from the World Health Organisation were advising Gulu officials and three more were to arrive from Geneva today. Experts from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention were heading to Uganda today.

Two international aid organisations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the US-based Catholic Relief Services, have withdrawn expatriate workers from the area, officials said in Kampala.

Ebola outbreaks occur every few years and the disease usually kills its victims faster than they can spread the virus to others. No one knows where the virus resides between outbreaks or how the first person in an outbreak contracts it.

Ebola gained worldwide attention in Richard Preston's 1994 bestseller, The Hot Zone, which recounted how the virus turned up in research monkeys in Reston, Virginia. It was also the subject of the 1995 fictional film, Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman. -

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0010/18/update/news3.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 18, 2000.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ