Ebola claims Gulu hospital head

Dr Matthew Lukwiya, medical superintendent of Lacor Hospital in the northern district of Gulu, where the Ebola viral epidemic was first reported in October, died of the highly contagious disease on Tuesday morning, bringing the total death toll to 156. “Dr Lukwiya was a torchbearer for his staff at Lacor Hospital,” Dr Alex Opio, assistant commissioner for disease control, told IRIN on Wednesday. So far, 399 cases of Ebola have been reported, 370 of which occurred in Gulu District. Twelve nurses have also lost their lives after contracting the disease, which is transmitted through contact with body fluids, the BBC reported. An official at the Ministry of Health told IRIN that health workers “came under risk from being overwhelmed with work”. Minister of Health Crispus Kiyonga has called for medical volunteers to help tackle the epidemic in Gulu, the BBC reported. “The aim of this is to build a national team for Ebola epidemic response that can be deployed anywhere in the country,” Opio told IRIN. The appeal had not been prompted by the death of Dr Likwuya, but “will add to the number of existing health workers providing care to Ebola patients, and is a kind of relief”, he said. President Museveni has promised that the Ugandan government would ensure that the families of health workers who died caring for Ebola patients would be compensated and assisted, according to Radio Uganda. In Masindi District, adjacent to Gulu, there have been five Ebola deaths and nine more confirmed cases since 1 December, bringing the total number of cases there to 24, according to the health ministry. The semi-official ‘New Vision’ newspaper reported on Wednesday that a doctor at Masindi District Hospital, Dr Francis Nyakoojo, who had been working in the Ebola isolation unit, had been infected with the disease. “Dr Lukwiya’s death, and those of his colleagues, illustrates how vulnerable health care workers in outbreak situations are, and also just how contagious this virus is,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday.