Ebola Virus Outbreak Feared in Uganda

The Ebola Virus disease re-appears once more in Uganda as 14 people have already been confirmed dead from infection.

Ugandan officials have expressed fears that the dreaded hemorrhagic fever attacks could reach outbreak level as what have occurred in 2000 when nearly 500 Ugandans were afflicted and nearly half of which had died.

World Health organization (WHO) officials have estimated thetotal afflictions to rise towards 36 in the present occurrence in WesternUganda.

This had prompted Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to advise Ugandans to avoid unnecessary contacts with each other such as shaking hands and engaging in casual sex and to refrain from do-it-yourself burials to avoid contacting the deadly virus.

The Sudan species have been pointed out to be as the main culprit in this most recent Ebola outbreak.

The Ebola virus had first appeared in Zaire in 1976 with highest case fatality rate of 90%. The Sudan outbreak in 1996 for example had only 50% case fatality rate. The virus is believed to be contacted first from an animal, spreading out to human populations through simple contact such as touching and more so through closer engagements such as kissing and other sexual activities. Avoiding contact with body fluids, especially from infected individuals is the main preventive method known. The reston strain is believed to be the only form of the virus that can be transferred to humans and usually coming from monkeys as original host.

Signs and symptoms of the Ebola virus affliction initiallyimitate other sicknesses such as the common flu with the immediate onset of hightemperature and joint pains. However, as the infection progresses, the afflicted person suffers bloody diarrhea and vomiting; worsening towards internal and external bleeding. These symptoms somehow characterize or are similar to dengue infection.

So far no known medication or treatment is known for Ebola virus infection and still no vaccine had been developed by medical experts. Ebola victims are taken through supportive care with replenishment of fluids as primary intervention.

The deadly Ebola strain affliction has been epitomized in several popular medium such as in the 1995 American film “Outbreak” which had portrayed a fictional widespread Ebola occurrence in Zaire, which had threatened to spread through America.

The movie starred Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding Jr.