Uganda is on high alert on a possible Ebola infection after a woman is put on isolation after she started bleeding through her body openings, reports the Daily Monitor.
The patient in northern Gulu district in northern Uganda has been put in isolation at the St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor.
The patient came for medical check-up at the Gynecology Ward on May 31. However, her condition wasn’t good; she later began bleeding a lot from all body openings. The doctors detected high fever and hemorrhagic manifestations before she was rushed to isolation ward,” said Dr. Emmanuel Ochola, an epidemiologist at the St. Mary’s hospital.
The woman visited the hospital believing to have a gynecological complication. Doctors too samples from the patient which were sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe last Saturday. The results are expected out today.
“We are monitoring the patient closely in isolation as we wait for the test results from UVRI; we are on high alert at the facility and have taken all the necessary precaution. We caution other health practitioners in various health facilities to be on high alert and refer suspicious cases of hemorrhagic fever immediately,” Dr. Ochola added.
There is no confirmation yet that the latest case is Ebola. However the hospital wants to begin investigating how the patient travelled from Adjumani (her hone) to Gulu, if by public means then the hospital needs to trace all persons who came in contact with her.
“Although we don’t want to cause panic, the public should be aware that an outbreak of Ebola was registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s far from our region, but not far though…. people should be on high alert and know that the spread of Ebola virus can be so fast and fatal,” Dr Ochola said.
The District had its first Ebola outbreak in 2000, which killed more than half of the 400 infected persons, among them the lead doctor Matthew Lukwiya and 14 health workers according to the report by the Daily Monitor.
Democratic Republic of Congo which is an immediate neighbor to Uganda has reported an Ebola outbreak. The countries have citizens traveling across the borders for business and personal visits.
Ebola takes two to 21 days to show symptoms after one is infected. The symptoms include sudden onset of fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)..
Ebola virus disease, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a viral illness transmitted to people from wild animals.
