Ebola kills senior doctor in Gulu

Dr Matthew Lukwiya, medical superintendent of Lacor Hospital in the northern district of Gulu, where the Ugandan outbreak of Ebola was confirmed in mid-October, died of the highly contagious disease on Tuesday morning, bringing the death toll in the epidemic 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 viral haemorrhagic disease, which is transmitted through contact with body fluids, the BBC reported. An official at the Ministry of Health’s Ebola hotline told IRIN that health workers “came under risk from being overwhelmed with work”. Meanwhile, Health Minister Crispus Kiyonga had called for medical volunteers “to build a national team for Ebola epidemic response that can be deployed anywhere in the country,” Dr Opio told IRIN. The appeal had not been prompted by the death of Dr Likwuya, but would “add to the number of existing health workers providing care to Ebola patients, and is a kind of relief”, he added. [for further details, see separate IRIN report of 6 December headlined, “UGANDA: Ebola claims Gulu hospital head]