(Xinhua) -- Uganda's health ministry said on Wednesday that the Ebola outbreak in the country is under control since there is no new confirmed case after the index case on May 6.
The ministry in a statement issued here said that since the first case, a 12-year-old girl who died on May 6, other suspected cases have turned out to be negative.
"The ministry assures the general public
that the outbreak is under control as seen in the absence of new confirmed cases. The public is requested to report any suspected cases to the nearest health unit," the statement said.The ministry said that a total of 21 people have been tested at the Uganda Virus Institute Entebbe and all proved negative.
It said that experts are continuing to monitor the 25 people who got in contact with the 12-year-old victim to see whether they will develop signs of the Ebola virus.
These contacts on Wednesday completed 18 days of follow-up and have three more days to be declared Ebola free.
The ministry said that other suspected cases reported in the western district of Kasese and the epicenter Luweero district located in central Uganda continue to be monitored.
Two isolation units have been set up in Luweero and another in Kasese.
Ebola virus is highly contagious and causes a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding.
Mortality rates of Ebola fever are extremely high, with the human case-fatality rate ranging from 50 percent to 89 percent, depending on viral subtype.
The last outbreak in Uganda was in late 2007 in the western district of Bundibugyo. It claimed 37 lives out of the 148 infected.
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