Uganda’s health ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday declared an outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease.
The ministry said on Twitter that there had been a confirmed Ebola case in the central Mubende district. A 24-year-old man who showed symptoms later died.
WHO’s Africa office said in a statement that the case was of the relatively rare Sudan strain, after Ugandan health authorities investigated six suspicious deaths in the district this month.
“There are currently eight suspected cases who are receiving care in a health facility,” WHO Africa said, adding it was helping Uganda’s health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.
Senior Ministry of Health staff rushed to Mubende after an unknown number of residents succumbed to what was initially reported as a “strange illness” until Monday’s confirmation.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, which neighbors Uganda to the west, is currently battling an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease, previously categorized as a hemorrhagic fever.
According to the WHO, the disease is transmitted to people from animals and spreads through human-to-human infection.
Uganda has had at least three previous episodes of Ebola Virus Disease, the most deadly being in 2000 which killed hundreds
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