Government has confirmed a case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Kasese District, Uganda.
Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng says the confirmed case is a 5-year-old boy who traveled from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with his mother on 10th June 2019. The mother is of Congolese origin but married to a Ugandan and they reside in Kasese District. However, she had travelled back to DRC to nurse her father who succumbed to Ebola.
According to Dr. Aceng, the mother and child were accompanied to Uganda by 4 other family members who are of Congolese origin including the wife of the deceased. The child and his family entered the country through Bwera Border post and sought medical care at Kagando hospital as the child was not feeling well by the time they came into Uganda.
The minister in a statement released on Tuesday evening explains that the child presented with vomiting blood, bloody diarrhea, muscle pain, headache, fatigue and abdominal pain as symptoms.
“The same night the family entered Uganda, the teams from DRC alerted us of presence of contacts of a deceased Ebola case who had crossed into Uganda and provided their names and telephone contacts, expressed their worry and requested for a cross border meeting for us to further address the frequent crossing over of contacts into Uganda. Upon receiving this information, all our health facilities were quickly informed to be on alert and information of these contacts were provided to the health workers. The child was detected by the health workers at Kagando hospital with signs and symptoms of Ebola and transferred and isolated at Bwera Hospital Ebola Treatment Unit for further management” she notes.
Dr. Aceng adds that a blood sample was drawn and sent for testing at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) very early on the morning of June 11th, the sample tested positive for Ebola. All the other Congolese family members have been identified and are in isolation at Bwera Hospital.
Two of them had their samples removed when they developed symptoms similar to that of Ebola, samples are on the way to UVRI and results will be communicated tomorrow. Eight contacts have been line listed and are being followed up. The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) have dispatched a Rapid Response Team to Kasese to support the teams continue with the various activities including; contact tracing and case management.
Dr. Aceng says her Ministry together with WHO will undertake ring vaccination of contacts to the case and other non-vaccinated frontline health and other workers beginning Friday 14 June 2019.
She appealed to the public to remain calm and vigilant and report any suspected cases to the nearest health facility or call our toll-free number 0800-203-033.
