World Health Staff wear Protective clothing as they try to enter Kagadi hospital where Ebola had broken out
FIRST READ:
From Uganda now to DR Congo test of Ebola on African Guinea Pigs Continues: 31 people including 5 health-care workers die from Ebola virus in Congo
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/09/from-uganda-now-to-dr-congo-test-of.html
Don’t worry we just testing the virus on a few guinea pigs, we shall be done in a short while: WHO tells public not to panic over Ebola
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/07/dont-worry-we-just-testing-virus-on-few.html
DRCongo, Uganda Muslims banned from Mecca over Ebola epidemic
Mecca: 900 Ugandan pilgrims denied visas over Ebola
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/636317-mecca-900-ugandan-pilgrims-denied-visas-over-ebola.htmlWeaponization
The Soviet
Union had an extensive offensive and defensive biological weapons
program that included MARV. At least three Soviet research
institutes had MARV research programs during offensive times: the Virology
Center of the Scientific-Research Institute for Microbiology in Zagorsk (today Sergiev
Posad), the Scientific-Production Association "Vektor" (today the
State
Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vektor") in Koltsovo, and
the Irkutsk Scientific-Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far
East in Irkutsk.
As most performed research was highly classified, it remains unclear how
successful the MARV program was. However, Soviet defector Ken Alibek
claimed that a weapon filled with MARV was tested at the Stepnogorsk
Scientific Experimental and Production Base in Stepnogorsk,
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
(today Kazakhstan),
suggesting that the development of a MARV biological
weapon had reached advanced stages. Independent confirmation for this
claim is lacking. At least one laboratory accident with MARV, resulting in the
death of Koltsovo researcher Nikolai Ustinov, occurred during offensive times
in the Soviet Union and was first described in
detail by Alibek. After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
MARV research continued in all three institutes, but judging from published
material this research has been defensive in nature. ( Alibek, Steven; Handelman, Biohazard: The Chilling True Story
of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World — Told from
Inside by the Man Who Ran It, New York, USA: Random House, ISBN 0-385-33496-6)
Three Ugandans die in deadly Marburg virus outbreak
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/us-uganda-marburg-idUKBRE89I0R920121019
KAMPALA |
(Reuters) - Three people have died in southwest Uganda from an outbreak of Marburg virus disease, officials said on Friday, a severe and highly fatal infection, just two weeks after the east African nation said it was free of the deadly Ebola virus.
Another four people who have died since October 4 were also suspected to have been killed by the disease, the Ugandan government said in a statement.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for Marburg virus disease, also known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted through bodily fluids such as saliva and blood, or by HANDLING INFECTED WILD ANIMALS SUCH AS MONKEYS.
THE DISEASE, FROM THE SAME FAMILY OF VIRUSES AS EBOLA, starts with severe headache and leads to hemorrhaging and, in previous outbreaks in Africa, to death in 80 percent or more of cases, usually within eight to nine days.
The last outbreak of Marburg in Uganda came in 2007 and killed two miners in the country's west. The latest outbreak comes after at least 16 people died from Ebola in August. In 2000, 425 people contracted Ebola in Uganda and more than half of them died.
A major outbreak of Marburg occurred among gold miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1998 and 2000, causing 128 deaths out of 154 cases.
An outbreak in Angola in 2004-05 killed 150 people out of 163 cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Officials said all the three confirmed victims of the latest Marburg outbreak in Uganda were members of the same family.
A team of experts has been sent to Kabale, the site of the outbreak some 430 km (270 miles) from the capital Kampala, to conduct an investigation.
Efforts were also underway to track all people who had had contact with the victims, the government said. Authorities urged the public to avoid direct bodily contact with a person suffering from Marburg and unnecessary public gatherings.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Duncan Miriri and Jon Hemming)
Marburg outbreak confirmed in Kabale
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/636587-marburg-outbreak-confirmed-in-kabale.html
Publish Date: Oct 19, 2012
By Vision Reporter
Health experts have confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the western district of Kabale after samples from two relatives taken to the Uganda Virus Institute tested positive.
Police Thursday stopped the burial of Boaz Turyahikayo a lecturer at Uganda Christian University and his sister Mildrid Asasira after it emerged that their family had lost four people from a mysterious disease in just a month.
The other two are Lillian Banegura their mother and an elder brother Bernard Rutaro who passed away early this month.
Dr. Patrick Tusiime the Kabale district health officer said a team from the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization is on its way to oversee the burial of the two victims.
The Marburg virus was last reported in Uganda in 2008.
It carries symptoms similar to those of Ebola that include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding.
Health Ministry warns on Marburg outbreak
Publish Date: Oct 19, 2012
By Vision Reporter
The Ministry of Health has warned the general public of an outbreak of a deadly Marburg virus in Kitumba sub-county, Kabale district in western Uganda.
The Ministry of Health has warned the general public of an outbreak of a deadly Marburg virus in Kitumba sub-county, Kabale district in western Uganda.
A statement issued Friday afternoon said laboratory tests done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) confirmed three samples positive of the highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever.
Preliminary reports from the district indicate that four other people had allegedly died of a strange disease since October 4th.
This strange disease has now been confirmed as Marburg. Investigations indicate that all the cases occurred among members of the same family in Kiyonjo parish in Kitumba sub-county.
Marburg is a killer disease caused by a virus and is spread through direct contact with wounds, body fluids like blood, saliva, vomitus, stool and urine of an infected person.
A person suffering from Marburg presents with sudden onset of high fever with any of the following; headache, vomiting blood, joint and muscle pains and bleeding through the body openings, i.e. eyes, nose, gums, ears, anus and the skin.
Marburg is a highly contagious disease and kills in a short time but can easily be prevented. The Ministry of Health is working with stakeholders and other development partners to contain the spread of this disease.
The following measures have been put in place in order to limit the spread of this highly infectious disease;
• A team of experts has been dispatched to the district to support both clinical and public health investigations
• The National Taskforce has reactivated its rapid response committees to quickly act to any emergencies
• The surveillance team has commenced the active tracing and listing of all possible contacts that were exposed to the suspects and confirmed cases.
• The Kabale District Taskforce has been reactivated to effectively coordinate programs in the district
The Ministry of Health urges the general public to observe the following protective measures;
• Report any suspected patient to a nearby health unit
• Avoid direct contact with body fluids of a person suffering from Marburg by using protective materials like gloves and masks
• Avoid unnecessary public gatherings
The Ministry of Health calls upon the public to stay calm as all possible measures are being undertaken to control the situation.
For more information and reports of any cases, please contact the Ministry hotline on +256750996034. The country will be kept informed further on the outcome of this health emergency.
Mecca: 900 Ugandan pilgrims denied visas over Ebola
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/636317-mecca-900-ugandan-pilgrims-denied-visas-over-ebola.html
Publish Date: Oct 12, 2012
By SHAMIM SAAD
Over 900 Ugandan Muslims, who had planned to travel to Mecca for pilgrimage, are stranded after Saudi Arabia maintained a ban following the recent outbreak of Ebola.
The intending pilgrims, who should have left on October 10, had booked air tickets and made the necessary legal clearances for travel.
The Uganda Muslim Supreme Council pilgrimage leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Kiirya, said they received information through the Saudi Arabian consulate in Kampala that all Ugandan pilgrims were not cleared due to the Ebola outbreak.
The epidemic broke out in Kibaale district in July but was controlled and the country declared free of the Ebola last month.
Rukia Nakamatte, the public relations officer of the Ministry of Health, said they presented a report that declared Uganda free of Ebola to the Saudi Arabian government.
DRCongo, Uganda Muslims banned from Mecca over Ebola epidemic
Published on 18 October
2012 - 5:30pm
Saudi Arabia
has banned Muslims from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda from making the pilgrimage to the holy
city of Mecca
this year because of cholera and Ebola epidemics in the region, a Congolese
religious leader said Thursday.
He said he thought the Saudi government had "made the decision to avoid any contamination from the Ebola and cholera viruses," which have taken a heavy toll on the region in recent months.
Pilgrims have already begun to arrive in Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, the world's largest annual gathering, which peaks around October 25 this year with more than one million Muslims expected.
DR Congo has been battling an outbreak of cholera, a contagious intestinal infection, for over a year, and of Ebola, one of the world's most virulent diseases, since mid-August.
According to the World Health Organisation, which has not imposed any travel restrictions on the country, more than 20,000 people in DR Congo were infected with cholera in 2012, with a mortality rate of two percent.
Leodegar Bazira, the WHO official in DR Congo, said the organisation had recorded 74 Ebola cases since August, 36 of them deadly, putting the mortality rate at 50 percent. But he added that the disease was now under control and confined to the northeastern town of Isiro.
In Uganda, Ebola has killed 17 people since July, but officials announced earlier this month that the disease had been brought under control and urged all countries to lift travel restrictions on Uganda.
To date, there is no treatment nor vaccine for Ebola, a rare haemorrhagic disease that kills between 25 percent and 90 percent of patients, depending on the strain of the virus. It is named after a small river in DR Congo.
Cholera, which is caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water, can strike swiftly, causing intense diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea that lead to severe dehydration.
