Uganda Confirms 2 More Ebola Cases Linked to Congo Outbreak as Bundibugyo Stigma Deepens
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · May 23
Uganda Confirms 2 More Ebola Cases Linked to Congo Outbreak as Bundibugyo Stigma Deepens
16 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · May 23
Two Ugandans — a driver and a health worker exposed to a 59-year-old Congolese patient who died in Kampala on May 14 — tested positive for Ebola, raising Uganda’s linked cases to five.
All five Ugandan cases trace to the eastern Congo outbreak, which Congo declared on May 15 and which has caused 160 suspected deaths in two provinces.
Uganda has stressed there is no outbreak in Bundibugyo district itself, but officials say the Bundibugyo virus label is fueling stigma because the strain was first identified there in 2007.
President Yoweri Museveni has urged Ugandans to stop shaking hands, postponed a major June 3 pilgrimage near Kampala, and suspended public transport and flights between Uganda and Congo.
Health experts say contact tracing, isolation and protective gear are critical because existing Ebola vaccines and treatments do not work against the Bundibugyo strain.
Why must a Ugandan district's name define a deadly virus when the current outbreak is raging in another country?
With no effective vaccine, is the world losing the race against the rapidly spreading Bundibugyo Ebola virus?
As a rare Ebola strain makes existing vaccines useless, are funding cuts leaving the world unprepared for new pandemics?