Ekip
19 October 2017•Update: 19 October 2017
By Halima Athumani
KAMPALA, Uganda
Uganda’s Ministry of Health on Thursday confirmed one death from the Ebola-like deadly Marburg virus.
Speaking to journalists in the capital Kampala, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister of health, said a 50-year-old woman from the Kween District of eastern Uganda, was tested positive by a state-owned research laboratory.
She said preliminary investigations showed the deceased had taken care of her 42-year-old brother who was a hunter. On his last hunting visit he had been near a place with caves inhabited by African fruit bats, which according to the World Health Organization, are hosts of the virus.
The Health Ministry dispatched a team to carry surveillance of people who came in contact with the deceased woman, and quarantined 10 health workers for medical checkup.
Symptoms of the virus appear in an affected person with the sudden onset of high fever. This is accompanied by headaches, vomiting blood, joint and muscle pains and unexplained bleeding through the body openings including the eyes, nose, gums, ears, anus and the skin.
There is no specific treatment or vaccine available for the virus.
The last case of Marburg in the country was in reported 2014.
Dr. Miriam Nanyunja, the country’s disease prevention and control officer for the World Health Organization, said Uganda will always be at the risk of an outbreak because of the presence of a large number of caves inhabited by fruit bats.
“You can never know when the next outbreak will be,” she said.
The current outbreak can only be declared over after no cases are reported for 42 days.
