Uganda confirms 7 Ebola cases, races to halt outbreak

Uganda confirmed seven Ebola infections Thursday as authorities try to track down 43 contacts of known Ebola patients two days after authorities in East African country announced an outbreak of contagious disease.

A total of eight deaths, including one confirmed, are “attributable to virus,” said Dr. Henry Kyobe, a Ugandan military officer who is tracking Ebola cases. He spoke of a “rapidly evolving" situation where “we think cases may rise in a few days.”

epicenter of outbreak is central Ugandan district of Mubende, whose main town lies along a highway into capital, Kampala. That travel link and several crowded artisanal gold mines re is concerning, Kyobe told World Health Organization.

Ugandan authorities have not yet to found source of outbreak, and neir have y discovered key first case. But y were able to confirm an Ebola outbreak of Sudan earlier this week after testing a sample from a 24-year-old man who h been initially treated for or illnesses, including malaria and pneumonia, when he sought care in his home town. Six ors in same area, including three children, died earlier in September after suffering what local officials called a strange illness.

re is no proven vaccine for Sudan strain of Ebola, and "its very critical at this point that we treat this outbreak as serious, because we may not have vantage that we have gained in terms of vancement in medical countermeasures,” said Dr. Patrick Otim, an epidemiologist with WHO in Africa.

Ebola, which is spre by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials, manifests as a dely hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

Scientists don’t know natural reservoir of virus, but y suspect first victim in an Ebola outbreak gets infected through contact with an infected animal.

Uganda has h multiple Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2000 that killed more than 200 people.

Last month authorities in Congo said a new case of Ebola in eastern city of Beni was linked to a previous outbreak.

Congo’s 10th outbreak of Ebola in provinces of North Kivu and Ituri killed more than 2,000 people from 2018 to 2020. During that time, neighboring Uganda reported some cases that authorities said were linked to outbreak in Congo.