Warning that Ebola still not under control

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that the number of cases of the viral haemorrhagic fever Ebola now stand at 284, with 91 deaths resulting. Outside of the cases reported in the northern district of Gulu, there have been three confirmed cases, including one death, in Mbarara district in the southwest, it said. The chairman of the national Ebola Task Force, Dr Sam Okware, said the situation in Mbarara was stable, and that the first "imported" case of infection had been isolated before the disease could spread far in the community, the semi-official 'New Vision' newspaper reported on Tuesday. "The cases have been isolated and contacts identified. An active search has started. Awareness is now very high," it quoted Dr Okware as saying. The mortality rate for the strain of Ebola fever currently affecting Uganda was holding steady at around 30 percent, a much lower rate than that for other strains, WHO stated, adding that over 110 persons have been discharged from hospitals in Uganda. However the international health NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) warned on Monday that the epidemic in the north was still not under control. "While the measures taken so far have clearly been successful, there is still a chance of the epidemic spreading beyond the Gulu district, and there have been some cases with strong clinical evidence appearing in neighbouring areas," it said. Nursing staff and others carers, such as relatives, were particularly at risk and all should wear protective clothing, MSF stated. Local people in Gulu and Mbarara were being reminded not to carry out traditional death rituals, such as having family members wash the body of the deceased, because there are indications this may play an important role in spreading the disease, MSF stated on Monday. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected persons. "The dead must be buried as quickly as possible in order to prevent infection," it added. WHO would not be able to declare the outbreak over until 42 days after the last case was reported, it said on Tuesday. Some Ebola survivors discharged from hospital in Gulu have been rejected by their families and communities, who fear they could still contract the disease from them, the PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) reported. "When I was discharged from Lacor Hospital after being admitted for 10 days, I found my house destroyed, together with my property. Even the chairman of the local council and the parish chief ordered me to be sent away," it quoted one such survivor, Bruce Okello, as saying. In Tanzania, meanwhile, the health ministry has denied reports of an outbreak of the disease in the northwest. The director of preventive services at the ministry, Dr Ali Mzige, said in an interview with 'The Guardian' newspaper that a patient who was bleeding from the nose at Kanyigo ward in Muleba district, Kagera region, was suffering from malaria and not Ebola. "If there was any cause for public concern, we would have alerted the public", he added. Dr Mzige said the government had plans in place to avoid the spread of the epidemic from neighbouring Uganda, and had already sent medical experts to the border regions of Kagera, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Rukwa, Mbeya and Ruvuma, 'The Guardian' reported. Travellers from Uganda were also being screened, it said. WHO has recommended no special restrictions on travel or trade to or from Uganda. Many countries have routine health regulations concerning travel and trade, and "no specific measures with respect to Ebola haemorrhagic fever are warranted or advised", WHO said last week. The current outbreak is the first in Uganda. It was first identified in 1976 in the Western Equatoria province of South Sudan and in the nearby region of Yambuku, northern DRC, then Zaire.