UGANDA: Ebola kills two doctors as death toll rises to 21
Pastor Dale Morgan
UGANDA: Ebola kills two doctors as death toll rises to 21*
05 Dec 2007 15:31:58 GMT
KAMPALA, 5 December 2007 (IRIN) - Two Ugandan doctors who had been
helping in the fight against an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus have
died, bringing the death toll to 21, officials said on 5 December.
"The sad news today is that our doctor who was admitted to Mulago
Hospital [in the capital, Kampala] died last night and a senior clinical
officer who had been in a critical condition also died this morning,"
said Samuel Kazinga, resident district commissioner for Bundibugyo, the
epicentre of the outbreak.
The doctor who died at Mulago had come from Bundibugyo to the city to
collect one of his children, only to fall sick, and had been put in an
isolation ward at the hospital, the largest in the country.
Some health officials have said a lack of appropriate equipment in
Mulago and other hospitals allowed the virus to spread, but the
government announced on 4 December that it had sent 400 packages of
protective gear to the affected region to help ensure medical workers
were adequately protected.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced its intervention in the
outbreak, including offering funds for the medical workers working in
isolation centres.
Keith McKenzie, the UNICEF representative in Uganda, told reporters on 5
December the priority was "to ensure safety of the community and the
health workers supporting them", before announcing other forms of
interventions, including tents, plastic sheeting, drums of chlorine and
emergency health kits for 1,000 persons for three months.
Eight pathogen specialists from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease
Control arrived in Uganda on 4 December to help battle the disease that
has infected at least 64 people. Five of the experts left Kampala for
Bundibugyo on 5 December.
Efforts to isolate suspected patients in Bundibugyo, a rural district
neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have failed as many
residents fear hospitals are unsafe, authorities have said.
The rare disease, named after a small DRC river, killed at least 170
people in northern Uganda in 2000, with specialists blaming poor
sanitation and hygiene.
It was first discovered in the DRC in 1976, but other outbreaks have
been recorded in Ivory Coast and Gabon.