Mystery killer disease that forced Ugandans to flee their homes is Ebola

The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month, health officials said, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many people fleeing their homes.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th Jul 2012, 07:00 BST

The officials and a World Health Organisation (WHO) representative told a news conference in Kampala yesterday that there is “an outbreak of Ebola” in the country.

“Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute... have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola haemorrhagic fever,” the Ugandan government and WHO said in joint statement.

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Kibaale is a district in midwestern Uganda, where people in recent weeks have been troubled by a mysterious illness that seemed to have come from nowhere. Ugandan health officials spent weeks conducting laboratory 
tests that were at first inconclusive.

On Friday, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told The Associated Press that investigators were “not so sure” it was Ebola, and a Ugandan health official dismissed the possibility of Ebola as merely a rumour. It appears firm evidence of Ebola was clinched at the weekend.

Health officials told reporters in Kampala that the 14 dead were among 20 reported with the disease, for which there is no cure or vaccine.

Related topics:WHO