The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A 9-year-old Congolese girl has succumbed to Ebola in Kasese.
The victim had travelled to Uganda on Wednesday from Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC to receive treatment for Ebola. She was identified at the Mpondwe border crossing before being admitted to the Ebola Treatment Unit at Bwera Regional Hospital.
Dr Bernard Opar, the Assistant Commissioner Infection Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health say that the child died on Friday at 7:30 am. He says that a team is on standby at the hospital to bury the victim.
The father of the deceased says that his wife is still being monitored at the treatment unit at Bwera Hospital.
“This was my firstborn daughter, we are still trying to make burial arrangements. The Health workers here are in touch with people in DRC to try and decide whether we should take the body back to DRC or bury here on government land,” he said.
As of August 6, a total of 2,781 Ebola cases have been reported in DRC. 1,866 cases have so far died with 94 probable cases being monitored.
Earlier this month, Uganda said it had started a trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine that may be used in neighbouring DR Congo where an outbreak of the disease has killed more than 1,900 people.
The trial of the MVA-BN vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson is expected to last two years.
At present there is no licenced drug to prevent or treat Ebola although a range of experimental drugs are in development.
Uganda has suffered Ebola outbreaks in the past but nothing on the scale of the DR Congo epidemic, which began in August 2018.
It is the second-worst outbreak on record, eclipsed only by the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300 out of 29,000 documented cases.
Uganda had been declared Ebola-free but in June three people from one family died there from the haemorrhagic fever after crossing back from DR Congo.
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