The Ugandan Ministry of Health said on Monday that it had detected two new confirmed cases of Ebola infection, bringing the total number of infections in the current outbreak in the country to seven.According to the ministry’s statement, the two new cases are health workers in a private health facility in the capital, Kampala, and both are Ugandan citizens.The latest infections come after three confirmed cases were reported on Saturday, bringing the total number to five. These previous cases included a driver who transported the first confirmed patient, a health worker who was exposed to the disease while treating that patient, and a Congolese woman who later tested positive after initially returning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Health authorities said that all identified contacts are being closely monitored as part of ongoing efforts to trace and contain chains of transmission, while infection control measures have been strengthened in health facilities.The outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, and warned that the risk of a national outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains “very high.”
Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded in Congo, which remains the epicenter of the outbreak.The World Health Organization said that delayed discovery, the absence of a vaccine or virus-specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, the spread of armed violence and high population movement made Congo particularly vulnerable.Earlier, the Director of the World Health Organization in Africa, Muhammad Yaqoub Al-Janabi, also warned against underestimating the outbreak, saying that doing so would be a “big mistake,” especially given the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no vaccine.