Kampala, Sep 24 : The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in Uganda’s central district of Mubende has risen to 11 people, the national health ministry said.
“Three (3) new deaths were recorded, bringing the total number of cumulative deaths to 11 (including Confirmed and probable deaths). Of these, eight (8) deaths were from the community whereas 3 are facility based,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday, published on Twitter.
The health authorities said that the cumulative number of confirmed cases amounts to 11 people and currently 25 cases are on admission at the health facility, with 6 confirmed and 19 suspected Ebola cases. The ministry is monitoring 58 people, listed as individuals who were in contact with the infected.
Earlier in the week, the Ugandan authorities declared an Ebola outbreak in Mubende after the death of a 24-year-old local resident infected with the Ebola-Sudan strain.
Four Ebola outbreaks were recorded in Uganda in 2000, 2014, 2017 and 2018. The largest and deadliest was in 2000, when 425 cases of infection were detected, 224 people died. In 2019, several cases were recorded in the country.
Ebola is an acute viral infection that affects humans and some other species of animals. The Ebola epidemic broke out in West Africa in 2015, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia becoming the epicenter of the outbreak. According to the World Health Organization, during the last major epidemic 28,600 people were infected with Ebola, and more than 11,300 of them died.
