Kampala, May 23 (IANS). Three more new cases of Ebola were confirmed in Uganda on Saturday, taking the total number of infections in the country to five.
Uganda’s Health Ministry said the newly confirmed cases of infection include a Ugandan driver who had transported the previously confirmed patient. Apart from this, a health worker has also been found infected, who came in contact with the virus while taking care of the first confirmed case. At the same time, a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who arrived in Uganda with symptoms, has also been declared a new confirmed case.
The Health Ministry said that the patients are now undergoing treatment. All contacts of the confirmed case have been identified and response teams are closely monitoring them.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday praised the efforts of the Ugandan Health Ministry to detect, monitor and care for people with suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease.
The WHO chief said, “In these difficult times, it is vital that authorities take utmost care to prevent the spread of the virus. WHO Africa is working closely with CDC and partners in the DRC and Uganda to contain the disease, support those affected and promote collaboration.”
WHO said on Friday that the risk to people’s health due to the spread of Ebola in Congo has become very high.
“We are changing our risk assessment of Ebola to be very high nationally, high regionally, and low globally,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has appealed for greater solidarity to rapidly control new Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said on Friday that he was providing up to $60 million from the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response to the Ebola outbreak in Congo and the wider region.
–IANS
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