Ebola outbreak: Second patient dies from virus in Uganda

A second person has died of Ebola in Uganda following an outbreak in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, health officials have said.

“A grandmother also died last night,” said Emanuel Ainebyona, a Ugandan health ministry spokesman.

The Congolese woman’s death came two days after her five-year-old grandson passed away late on Tuesday, after crossing from the DRC.

Officials said a further two patients were being kept in isolation – the boy’s three-year-old brother and a 23-year-old Ugandan man who has shown symptoms.

Nearly 1,400 people have died of the virus in the DRC since August of more than 2,000 cases uncovered.

However, an experimental but apparently effective vaccine is being deployed for the first time. Uganda has vaccinated some 4,700 health workers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

“The spread of Ebola across the international border is a clear signal that the international community must reset and redouble its efforts” in combatting the disease, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said on Wednesday.

Experts have long feared Ebola could spread to neighbouring countries because of rebel attacks and residents’ resistance to authorities hampering containment work in eastern Congo, one of the world’s most turbulent regions.

The virus can spread quickly through close contact with bodily fluids of those infected and can be fatal in up to nine in 10 cases.

The WHO expert committee has twice decided that this outbreak, while of “deep concern,” is not yet a global health emergency.

But international spread is one of the major criteria the UN agency considers before making a declaration. It has advised against travel restrictions.

Peter Piot, a microbiologist credited with first helping to discover the virus, said the current outbreak ”really reminds me of the [2013 to 2016] west Africa epidemic in the early stages”.

“It’s happening in an extraordinarily difficult environment to control,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It’s a political issue in the first place” due to community mistrust, he added.

Kellie Ryan, of the International Rescue Committee, told the programme that militia groups had attacked health centres and even killed a doctor.

She said: “That is making it extremely difficult because it limits our movements. Sometimes we have to suspend programming because the insecurity is too great and we need to protect our staff.”

Screening for Ebola has proved challenging due to resistance from Congolese residents, health workers have claimed.

Francis Tumwine, of the Ugandan Red Cross, told the Associated Press that “they have failed to understand that Ebola is there”. He added: “They think that it is witchcraft which is killing them.”

A Congolese trader, Muhindo Kaongezekela, added: “In Congo, if they find you with a headache, they take you to the hospital and later say they died of Ebola.”

Additional reporting by agencies