DRC Ebola Outbreak Jumps Border into Uganda

CC Flickr MONUSCO Photos, modified, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Summary

Given the porous nature of the border, it was only a matter of time before the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo made its way to Uganda. The first cases to be reported by the Ugandan authorities were a 5-year-old boy and his grandmother, both of whom have since succumbed to the disease. The pair are believed to have been infected while attending a family member’s funeral in the DRC.

Uganda is currently home to three other suspected cases, and the authorities are monitoring at least 112 other potential contacts.

The World Health Organization held an emergency meeting last Friday in Geneva, in which it stopped short of declaring that the Ebola outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern – a distinction that would expand the international response to the outbreak considerably.

But with each passing day, the case total ticks upward. It now stands at 2181 total and probable cases, and 1459 people have lost their lives in the current outbreak.

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