The World Health Organization is working with Uganda to forestall a deadly Ebola outbreak within the East African nation from spreading to neighboring nations, the worldwide health agency’s chief said on Wednesday.
Health authorities in Uganda have identified 74 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola across five districts, in accordance with the WHO. At the very least 39 people have died from the disease and 14 others have recovered from the disease. Greater than 660 individuals who were possibly exposed to the virus are under energetic follow-up.
“Our primary focus now’s to support the federal government Uganda now to rapidly control and contain this outbreak, to stop it from spreading to neighboring districts and neighboring countries,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a world health update in Geneva on Wednesday.
Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola in late September after an individual from a village within the central region of the country tested positive for the virus. There aren’t any licensed vaccines or treatments for the strain that caused the outbreak, called Sudan ebolavirus.
Ebolavirus doesn’t spread through airborne transmission. People catch the disease through direct contact with bodily fluids of a one who has fallen in poor health or died from the virus. It may possibly also spread through contact with contaminated materials and infected animals.
Ebola just isn’t contagious until symptoms appear, which might take between two and 21 days. On average, it takes about eight to 10 days for symptoms to indicate up.
The U.S. last week began directing travelers who frolicked in Uganda to 5 airports for health screening before entering the country out of an abundance of caution. The airports are Latest York’s JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles. The health screenings apply to travelers who’ve been in Uganda inside 21 days of their arrival within the U.S.
Airlines are providing passenger information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so the agency can conduct follow-ups with the travelers, a federal health official said last week. This information can also be being shared with state and native health departments.
There aren’t any known cases of Ebola within the U.S. at once. In 2014, a person who had traveled in West Africa was diagnosed with Ebola after arriving in Dallas. The person died and two nurses who treated him caught the virus, though they each recovered. Seven other individuals who fell in poor health with Ebola while in West Africa were transported to the U.S. for treatment throughout the 2014 outbreak. Six recovered and one died.
The CDC issued an alert last week telling local health departments and physicians to be looking out for patients who’ve symptoms. Health-care professionals should obtain detailed travel history from patients suspected of getting the disease, particularly those that have been within the affected areas of Uganda. The U.K. Health Security Agency has issued an identical alert in Britain.
Ebola symptoms include unexplained hemorrhaging, bleeding or bruising in addition to fever, severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, weakness and fatigue, sore throat, lack of appetite, stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting, in accordance with the CDC.
U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra last week offered his counterpart in Uganda support from the Health and Human Services Department.
Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said on Wednesday that Uganda’s government needs more support from the international community to ramp up surveillance on the bottom to contain the outbreak. Ryan said not enough health alerts are being issued on the local level.
“We’re seeing good progress,” Ryan said. “It is very vital that we usually are not confident. Ebola brings surprises, infectious disease brings surprises.”
