Thursday, December 2, 2010

UNDIAGNOSED DISEASE - UGANDA

02-DEC-2010
SubjectPRO/EDR> Undiagnosed disease - Uganda (03)
The government [of] Tanzania is sending a team of medical experts to Kagera region to investigate reports of an outbreak of a deadly disease suspected to be Ebola [haemorrhagic fever] in border villages in neighbouring Uganda. The Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Lucy Nkya, said in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday [1 Dec 2010] that the team will comprise medical experts from her Ministry, the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH)."You are just breaking the news (on the outbreak of the disease in Uganda) to me. Thanks, and I will make sure that a medical team is dispatched to Kagera region as soon as possible," she told The Citizen in a telephone interview.
She said they will summon his senior lieutenants at the ministry and make immediate arrangements to send the medical team to Kagera region.Reports from Uganda quoted health officials as saying that a disease that has been killing people [in] Kitgum, Abim and Agago districts could be a new strain of Ebola [haemorrhagic fever].
The situation report of 26 Nov 2010 indicates a cumulative figure of 32 cases with a fatality rate of 25 per cent since its outbreak in Balang village in Mutu parish in Paimol Sub County, Agago district early this month [November 2010].
A National Professional Officer with World Health Organization in Gulu, Dr Emmanuel Tenywa, said a total of 19 people are currently admitted at an isolation ward in Kalongo Hospital with acute signs and symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting, and severe frontal headache, sometimes associated with pain in the eye without conjunctivitis and blood in their stool. He said already one of the health workers in the hospital has developed the disease after she accidentally came into contact with vomit of a patient suffering from the disease."The illness thus progresses, with patients reporting abdominal pain localized in the epigastrium, and as it progresses, patients develop restlessness, mental confusion, and aggressive behavior which eventually results in coma and death," he said.
--Communicated by:ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>[This press report provides a more detailed description of the condition of the patients in the Ugandan outbreak and states that the cumulative number of cases is now 32 with a fatality rate of 25 percent. The symptoms of the patients do not resemble those associated with haemorrhagic fever, and the outcomes are more severe than expected for a diagnosis of amoebic dysentery currently favoured in Uganda. Clarification is awaited.
The districts of Kitgum, Abim, and Agago in the Northern Region of Uganda where the outbreak is located can found in the map at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Uganda>. The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Uganda can be accessed at <http://healthmap.org/r/0089>. - Mod.CP

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