Mbarara District declared free of Ebola

Mbarara District in southwestern Uganda was declared free of Ebolae at the end of last week according to the Ministry of Health. Director of Health Services Prof Francis Omaswa told a press conference on 14 December that they expected no more Ebola cases in the district inasmuch as the last case had been reported over six weeks ago, this being twice the maximum incubation period for the disease, the Ugandan newspaper ‘The New Vision’ reported last Friday. One person died at Lacor Hospital in the northern district of Gulu at the end of last week, Ugandan Radio reported on Saturday, stressing that the death was the first registered in the district over the past eight days. One hundred and sixty-two people died of the disease in Uganda, out of a total of 421 cases, since the outbreak first started in October. Three hundred and eighty-nine cases occurred in Gulu. One new case has been reported in Masindi District in the southwest, according to the Ministry of Health. Omaswa said the epidemic in Gulu and Masindi would be under control soon, pointing out that the rate of spread had continued to decline since late October, ‘The New Vision’ reported.