A 32-year-old male nurse in Uganda has died from gruesome symptoms linked to Ebola, the first recorded death in over a year.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Uganda Dr Diana Atwinem said the victim was an employee of Mulago National Referral Hospital, in the capital city of Kampala.
Forty-four people have been identified as close contacts, including 30 healthcare workers and patients at the hospital where he worked.
But health officials say they are ‘in full control of the situation.’
The man initially developed a fever and sought treatment at multiple health facilities but within five days he developed chest pain and difficulty breathing before he suffered from unexplained bleeding
The nurse then experienced total organ failure before succumbing to his illness on January 29.
Dr Atwinem said: ‘Post-mortem samples confirmed Sudan Ebola Virus Disease. Currently, no other health care worker or patient on the ward has presented with signs or symptoms of Ebola.
‘The patient presented with a five-day history of high fever, chest pain, and difficulty in breathing, which later progressed to unexplained bleeding from multiple body sites.’
Red Cross workers are shown carrying a body bag containing a 3-year-old boy suspected of dying from Ebola in 2022 in Uganda, the most recent outbreak of Ebola in the country
Dr Diana Atwine, Uganda’s Permanent Secretary of Health, confirmed the most recent death: a 32-year-old male nurse from Mulago National Referral Hospital who initially sought treatment for fever-like symptoms at multiple facilities
Ebola is spread through contact with contaminated materials or bodily fluids of a sick person.
It primarily occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has seen outbreaks that have claimed over 15,000 lives since it was first identified in 1976 in Uganda.
The new outbreak in Kampala marks Uganda’s ninth total outbreak.
It comes after Tanzania declared an outbreak of Marburg virus, an Ebola-like infection with a fatality rate as high as 90 percent. Two people have died.
A secure and private burial of the nurse will be arranged to reduce the risk of disease transmission.
Additionally, vaccinations of all individuals who had contact with the deceased nurse, particularly those in close proximity, will begin immediately.
The average death rate of Ebola is 50 percent, though in some outbreaks, up to 90 percent of sick people have died.
Ebola is highly contagious, and a person remains contagious even after they die.
The incubation period for Ebola – meaning the time after infection and before symptoms appear – is two to 21 days – but people are not contagious until they start displaying symptoms.
Since the first recorded outbreak in Uganda in 1976, Ebola has repeatedly emerged across sub-Saharan Africa, affecting regions in the west, east, and central parts of the continent.
The most devastating outbreak occurred between 2014 and 2016, claiming over 10,000 lives, primarily in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The second-largest outbreak, which took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2018 to 2020, resulted in more than 2,000 deaths.
Though health officials say they have the situation handled, Kampala is a large city of more than 4million people who could now be at risk of the highly contagious infection.
Ebola is highly contagious, and a person remains contagious after they die. Red Cross workers are shown putting on PPE prior to burying a three-year-old boy suspected of dying from Ebola in 2022
The average death rate pf Ebola is 50 percent, though in some outbreaks, up to 90 percent of sick people have died
As a key transit hub connecting South Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, and neighboring countries, tracing contacts in Kampala will be challenging.
Uganda’s last Ebola outbreak occurred in 2022 after about four months, killing 55 people, including six healthcare workers, out of the 143 people infected.
Ebola does not have a cure, but treatments approved by the FDA exist. Doctors use monoclonal antibodies, which are fine-tuned to specifically recognize and neutralize Ebola virus particles and help the immune system clear the virus.
If given early, monoclonal antibodies can save nearly 9 out of 10 patients.
Cases of Ebola in the US have arisen as a result of travel to West Africa, including a Liberian national who traveled to Dallas in 2014 as well as the nurses who treated him and another that year in a US camera man who was infected in Liberia and treated in Nebraska.
The patient in Dallas passed away, while his nurses recovered. The camera man also recovered.
There are currently no cases of Ebola in the US.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
