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Africa Subsaharan
Second Ebola death in Uganda after outbreak crosses border, WHO sez not emergency
2019-06-15
[DAWN] A second person infected with the Ebola virus has died in Uganda, the health ministry said on Thursday, after a family exposed to the disease quietly crossed the border from Congo.

The first cross-border cases in this Ebola outbreak, the second-deadliest in history, have prompted a World Health Organisation expert committee to meet on Friday to discuss whether to declare a global health emergency. Such declarations almost always boost attention and donor funding.

Uganda health ministry front man Emmanuel Ainebyoona confirmed the death of the 50-year-old woman overnight. Her five-year-old grandson was the first confirmed death from Ebola in Uganda on Wednesday. The boy’s three-year-old brother also is infected.

Uganda’s health ministry said all members of the Congolese-Ugandan family, including a six-month-old baby, have been sent to Congo for monitoring and experimental treatments as part of clinical trials. There is no treatment as such for the virus which can spread quickly via close contact with bodily fluids of those infected and can be fatal in up to 90 per cent of cases.

More than 1,400 people have died in this outbreak declared in August in eastern Congo.

World Health Organization panel does not declare Ebola emergency

[Jpost] A World Health Organisation (WHO) advisory panel decided on Friday not to declare an international public health emergency over the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda, saying that the criteria had not been met.

But in a statement, the independent panel urged neighboring "at risk" countries to improve their preparedness for detecting and managing exported cases, "as Uganda has done."

Authorities in Uganda, where two members of the same family died this week from the disease, have drawn up a list of 98 contacts, or contacts of contacts, potentially exposed to the Ebola virus, but only 10 are considered "high risk," WHO expert Dr Mike Ryan told a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva. The previous figure was 27 on Thursday.
Posted by:Fred

#2  A couple hundred per the Washington Examiner
Posted by: Ebbolutch Hatrack1579   2019-06-15 14:26  

#1  We ignore this at our own risk. We can't effectively screen for this. Fever is present in only 50% of cases. How many from the Congo were dropped off inside our border?
Posted by: Warthog   2019-06-15 08:37  

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