Doctors hope Ebola outbreak may be over
Ugandan health officials are conducting a countdown as they work towards declaring the outbreak of Ebola fever over in Uganda with only one death reported in the last six days.
Dr Samuel Okware, head of the country's Ebola task force, says officials have begun counting down two consecutive 21-day incubation periods, and if no new cases are reported by February 15, the outbreak, which has so far claimed 173 lives since it was confirmed on October 14, will be declared over.
A five-month-old girl, who died on January 4 in Gulu in northern Uganda where the outbreak was first confirmed, is the latest victim.
Okware says 430 cases of the hemorraghic fever have been confirmed in the East African nation.
In the past 24 days, no deaths or new cases have been reported in Masindi district hospital, 160 kilometres north west of Kampala, where the outbreak was confirmed to have spread on November 5.
The baby girl, whose mother died from the virus on December 22, was buried immediately, but suspicious officials had the body exhumed and discovered the cause of death was linked to Ebola.
Dr Okware said: "The tests were positive of Ebola. Despite the absence of new confirmed cases being reported, active case search and contact tracing continues in both Gulu and Masindi. Public education and social mobilization continue throughout the country".
Experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organisation and Doctors Without Borders have been in Uganda to help contain the disease.
The fever caused by the Ebola virus is transmitted through body fluids. The disease can cause severe hemorrhagic fever and is often fatal.
There is no cure for Ebola, but patients aggressively treated with reverse dehydration have a good chance of survival, and in Uganda, at least 200 people have recovered.
