Kampala, Uganda — A nurse within the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has died of Ebola, a well being official stated Thursday, within the first recorded fatality for the reason that last outbreak ended in 2023. Diana Atwine, everlasting secretary of the well being ministry, advised reporters the 32-year-old male affected person was an worker of Mulago Hospital, the primary referral facility in Kampala.
After creating a fever, the affected person was handled at a number of areas in Uganda earlier than a number of lab exams confirmed he had been affected by Ebola. The affected person died on Wednesday, and Ebola was confirmed following postmortem exams, Atwine stated.
Well being authorities have been “in full management of the scenario,” she stated.
Ebola, which is unfold by contact with bodily fluids of an contaminated particular person or contaminated supplies, manifests as a lethal hemorrhagic fever. Signs embody fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle ache and at occasions inside and exterior bleeding.
Not less than 44 contacts of the affected person have been listed, together with 30 well being staff and sufferers on the hospital in Kampala, in keeping with Uganda’s Ministry of Well being.
Scientists do not know the pure reservoir of Ebola, however they think the primary particular person contaminated in an outbreak acquired the virus by way of contact with an contaminated animal or consuming its uncooked meat. Ugandan officers are nonetheless investigating the supply of the present outbreak.
Uganda has had a number of Ebola outbreaks, together with one in 2000 that killed a whole bunch. A 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people, the illness’s largest loss of life toll.
Ebola was found in 1976 amid two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, the place it occurred in a village close to the Ebola River, after which the illness is known as.
