A nurse in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has died of Ebola, a health official said on Thursday, in the first recorded fatality since the last outbreak ended in 2023.
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Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of the health ministry, told reporters Thursday that the 32-year-old male patient was an employee of Mulago Hospital, the main referral facility in Kampala.
After developing a fever, the patient was treated at several locations in Uganda before multiple lab tests confirmed he had been suffering from Ebola. The patient died on Wednesday, and Ebola was confirmed following postmortem tests, Atwine said.
Health authorities were “in full control of the situation”, she said.
Ebola, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials, manifests as a deadly haemorrhagic fever. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.
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First Ebola deaths since 2016 reported in Guinea, as Congo battles fresh outbreak
First Ebola deaths since 2016 reported in Guinea, as Congo battles fresh outbreak
At least 44 contacts of the patient have been listed, including 30 health workers and patients at the hospital in Kampala, according to Uganda’s Ministry of Health.