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Deadly EBOLA Outbreak in Uganda, Africa
October 2000
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Archive of similar pages:
Ebola Outbreak -- Uganda Oct 2000
Ebola Outbreak -- Gabon 2001
Ebola Outbreak -- Congo 2002-2003

• 10/14/00--Original outbreak identified in Gulu District. First case died Sept 17th. Good article, later in the outbreak--broad outlook. 

• 10/20/00--Virus identifed as similar to, but not identical to Ebola-Sudan

• 11/2/00--A case found in Mbarara District -- a man went there from Gulu--eventually 3 victims in Mbarara

• 11/13/00--A case found in Masindi District, possibly a contact of a woman who fled hospital in Gulu and later died. Four cases (as of 11/14/00), all died.

below on this page:
maps | table by dates | information sources | background info | reports pasted, paraphrased, linked

From (mostly) World Health Organization (WHO) website for disease outbreaks
Date of Report	Total Cases	Deaths	Reco- vered  (AP Stories, etc)	Brief News (check WHO's Haemorrhagic fever page for latest bulletins)
11/17/00	329 new counting		107	Update 30 As of 17 November, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported cumulative figures for Gulu district of 329 cases, including 107 deaths. These figures include 7 suspected cases that were not added to the cumulative total on the day before the reporting system of Ugandan Ministry of Heath changed to one based on laboratory confirmed cases. Cumulative case totals will now be reported twice weekly because of the decreasing number of new cases
11/15/00	321 new counting		104	Update 29 As of 13 November, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported 1 new laboratory confirmed case. No new deaths have been reported as of 14 November. The Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported cumulative figures for Gulu district of 321 cases, including 104 deaths.
11/14/00				Update 28 The Ugandan Ministry of Health has changed its reporting system... Cumulative figures will continue to be provided, but beginning today only new cases that are laboratory confirmed will be reported. Deaths will be reported when they occur Four cases,... all of whom have died, have been reported in Masindi district. The confirmed case is the husband of a woman who had been hospitalized in Gulu. She, her daughter and grandchild died before EHF was diagnosed in her husband. A team are implementing barrier nursing procedures and are tracing contacts. The number of new cases has declined sharply.  From 8-11 November inclusive, only 5 laboratory confirmed cases have been recognized in Gulu.   The cases in Mbarara and Masindi districts have resulted from persons infected in Gulu district.  Surveillance in other districts throughout Uganda is ongoing.
As of 11/13/00, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has changed its reporting system... Cumulative figures will continue to be provided, but beginning today only new cases that are laboratory confirmed will be reported. Deaths will be reported when they occur.
11/13/00	323	106 total		AP-- A new case of the disease...has been identified in Masindi, 180 kilometers (112 miles) northwest of Kampala, said Francis Omaswa, director-general of Uganda's health services. Omaswa gave no details about the case except to say that a man diagnosed with Ebola had been admitted to a local hospital.
11/12/00	320	104	172 Recovered Victims Shunned	Update 27
11/11/00	313	101		Update 26
11/10/00	301	99		Update 25 Of the three laboratory confirmed cases in Mbarara district (see previous report), the two most recently diagnosed cases have died.
11/9/00	295	96		Update 24
11/8/00	286	94		Update 23
11/7/00	284	91		Update 22
11/6/00	281	91		Update 21--more about the Mbarra cases Three confirmed cases, including 1 death have been reported in Mbarara district. Samples from the cases were confirmed by the laboratory in Gulu. The two most recent cases had contact with the initial case, who subsequently died.   No other confirmed cases have been reported in contacts who are being intensively followed up and monitored. A WHO-led team ...in Mbarara...have set up an isolation ward with adequate protective equipment and are carrying out contact tracing...
11/5/00	280	89		Update 20
11/4/00	269 (AP)	87 (AP)	149 (AP)	Update 19 - WHO Advisory Note WHO advisory: No specific measures with respect to Ebola haemorrhagic fever are warranted or advised.
11/3/00	266	83		Update 18
11/2/00	262	81		Update 17 First virologically confirmed case outside Gulu district has been reported in Mbarara district in southwestern Uganda. [This is "opposite corner" of Uganda--Searle]
11/1/00	251	80		Update 16
10/31/00	239	75		Update 15
10/30/00	224	73	96	Update 14 the government of Japan is supporting the containment of the outbreak in Uganda
10/29/00	211	72		Update 13
10/28/00	205	71		Update 12 Two Italian epidemiologists will be joining the team...  UNICEF are assisting...
10/27/00	191	68	75	Update 11 has lists of the many organizations participating in controlling the outbreak.
10/26/00	182	64		Update 10 No new deaths reported  -- photos available
10/25/00	176	64		Update 9 Teams checking suspected cases from settlements for internally displaced persons in Gulu district 20 hand-held radios link mobile teams to centre
10/24/00	165	60		Update 8 Established response-management teams for field epidemiology, case management, laboratory services, public education, coordination and logistics
10/23/00	160	55		Update 7 The increase in cases reflects transmission of the disease as it occurred about 8-10 days earlier. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days. Since Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreaks usually originate from a single source, cases tend to come in waves: exposure through direct contact, incubation period and then illness
10/22/00	149	54		Update 6 new figures only
10/21/00	139	51		Update 5 A team from the WHO Collaborating Centre at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States is establishing a field diagnostic laboratory in Gulu district.  The last laboratory equipment arrived 20 October and the laboratory is expected to be operational shortly.
10/20/00	122	47		Update 4 NIV has now characterized the virus strain as similar to, but not identical to Ebola-Sudan. Ebola-Sudan was associated with a case-fatality rate of between 50-70% in disease outbreaks in southern Sudan in 1976 and 1979.  The strain appears to be somewhat less virulent than the Ebola-Zaire strain, which has caused epidemics in the former Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabon with a case-fatality rate of between 70-90%. Both Ebola strains and the closely-related Marburg virus are found in the central region of Africa. Control efforts are progressing well.  At present, the measures taken in the hospital isolation wards make it unlikely that any virus transmission will occur in this setting.  Many of the sick persons and their contacts in the community have been identified and are receiving appropriate care.
10/19/00	111	41		Update 3 The WHO team in Gulu has reported that the isolation units in Lacor St. Mary's and Gulu General Hospitals are clean, well organized and well supplied.  Cases are being managed effectively. On 18 October, WHO staff travelled to Kitgum to investigate reports that cases were occurring in this city and found no evidence of current disease activity.
10/18/00	94	39		Update 2 The cases are focused on Aswa county and Gulu municipality in Gulu district. Unconfirmed reports of cases in a neighbouring district of Kitgum are being investigated by the operational task force.
10/17/00	81	35		Update Three WHO staff, including 2 epidemiologists and 1 laboratory specialist are already working in Gulu district and will be joined by an additional epidemiologist and clinician from WHO Headquarters.
10/16/00	71	35		2000 - Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Uganda Laboratory testing carried out at the National Institute of Virology in South Africa indicates that the cause of the outbreak is the Ebola virus. These are the first cases of Ebola ever reported in Uganda.

Reports pasted, paraphrased, linked, from news stories (Reuters, AP, ABC etc):  

11/14/00 -- Four have died in Masindi District, all family of the woman who fled Gulu (WHO bulletin). 150 people may have come into contact with Ebola at funerals for three of these victims. Seven of these are from Kenya, and they have been quarantined in their homes. They have shown no signs of Ebola, but will be monitored for 42 days before they are declared free of infection.

11/13/00 --A case found in Masindi District, possibly a contact of a woman who fled hospital in Gulu and later died.

11/2/00 --A case found in Mbarara District -- a man went there from Gulu--eventually 3 victims in Mbarara

10/27/00 --
WHO on How to Handle Ebola -- excellent article from ABCNEWS

10/20/00
Experts say Ugandan Ebola outbreak is slowing
U.S. Experts in Uganda to Tackle Ebola Virus
"The vast majority of the cases are in the hospital today," Rodier said. But he added that it will take the length of an incubation period, about 10 days, before the number of new cases begins to shrink as a result of the measures taken this week.
Rodier was optimistic though that there would only be two more cycles of outbreaks and that the last case should be isolated within a month, after which there will be a six-week surveillance period to make sure the outbreak is over.
"To declare the epidemic over takes about three months," he said.
On Thursday, experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control arrived in Gulu with a mobile laboratory to help separate actual Ebola cases from those who have other diseases with similar symptoms.

10/19/00 
The first Ebola victim in the Uganda outbreak is believed to have died on Sept. 17 in Kabede Opong, a village three miles outside Gulu.
Esther Awete was found dead in her mud hut by her mother and sisters. In keeping with custom, her body was kept in her hut for two days to allow friends and family to take part in the funeral. Awete's family and closest friends ritually bathed her body, buried her less than 30 feet from where she died and then washed their hands in a communal basin as a sign of unity.
Now, her mother, three sisters and three other relatives are dead and the virus has spread across a 15-mile radius.
Researchers do not know what causes Ebola outbreaks, which are often years and hundreds of miles apart. The virus is believed to be carried by some animals and insects, which live with the virus. Ebola then makes the jump into an initial victim, who then spreads the disease in a community.
Awete, 36, lived with her mother and sisters in a small compound of six thatched huts and a dilapidated house surrounded by banana trees and rows of corn. She made her living selling home-brewed cassava beer and corn she ground by hand inside her 15-foot wide, windowless hut.
People here do not eat wild animals, suspected as the source of some past Ebola outbreaks, and Awete did nothing unusual before she died, except for a trip to another village to get cassava leaves for brewing.

At first, neighbors thought Awete died of dysentery, cholera or any of a number of illnesses common to the area.

10/18/00
More experts from WHO were expected in Gulu on Wednesday and investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta left for Uganda Tuesday.
Ugandan health inspectors fanned out around villages on Wednesday, searching hut to hut among frightened residents for victims of the deadly Ebola virus.
Shaking hands is forbidden in the Gulu district, where 39 people have already died from an outbreak of Ebola -- transmittable through almost any kind of bodily contact -- and another 57 are suspected of being infected in Uganda's first outbreak.

10/17/00--
ABCNEWS.com Uganda Struggles to Contain Ebola
Ugandan officials closed schools and banned funerals as 10 more Ebola cases turned up today and the death toll from the deadly virus reached 37.
Doctors are diagnosing about 10 new cases a day.
At Locar Hospital, nurses and physicians donned surgical gear to attend to patients taken to a spartan, communal isolation ward where they were made comfortable as the disease took its course.
The outbreak has been traced to a woman who died in early September, said Okat Lokach, acting director of health services.
     The woman’s daughter and mother died soon after, and mourners who participating in ritual cleansing at their funerals took the disease back to their neighborhoods, where it spread like wildfire, Lokach said.
     Funerals have since been banned, he said

10/16/00--
Officials in northern Uganda have placed three districts at the center of an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus under quarantine and say they will use force to prevent anyone from leaving the area.
10/16/00 CNN.com - Ugandan officials try to contain Ebola outbreak
10/16/00 CNN.com - Ebola 'Like watching someone dissolve'
10/16/00 allAfrica.com Alarm Over Ebola Outbreak In Uganda

10/16/00--GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- The World Health Organization said on Monday the death toll in Uganda from a disease identified as Ebola fever had risen to 43, according to provisional data. The organization expects the number of cases to rise.

From the WHO website: Ebola haemorrhagic fever is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50-90% of cases. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected persons. The Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 in the western equatorial province of Sudan and in the nearby region of Yambuku, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, (then Zaire.)

Oct 15--Ebola Virus Kills 33 in Uganda
KAMPALA, Oct 15 - A viral disease that has killed 33 people in northern Uganda in the past two weeks has been identified as dreaded Ebola fever, health officials said on Sunday.

maps:

• Africa shows Uganda

• Uganda showing Gulu district--location of original outbreak

• Uganda showing Mbarara district where new cases were identified 11/2/00

• Uganda showing Masindi district where new cases were identified 11/13/00

• detail map of Gulu district

• graphic showing Ebola outbreak locations worldwide