For the first time since Uganda’s Ebola outbreak began last month, a patient has died in the capital city Kampala, bringing the total number of deaths since last month to 19.
There are no known active cases in Kampala but this death is the latest confirmation of the spread of the virus from its epicentre in the central region, something worried health workers had urged the government to prevent by placing that region under quarantine.
The man who died of Ebola in Kampala had been identified by health teams as potentially having had contact with the virus, but he then ran away from his village and sought help from a traditional healer in another region, according to Uganda’s health minister Jane Ruth Aceng.
The man died at Kiruddu national referral hospital on Friday.
Ms Aceng says the teams who treated the patient were already alert and protected themselves, because he was seriously ill when he arrived on site.
Forty-two people that he may have come into contact with have been listed and are being followed up, the health ministry says.
To date, there have been 54 confirmed Ebola cases in Uganda.
