ProMED-mail |

Published Date: 2012-07-28 15:55:46
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed fatal disease - Uganda (02): (KI)
Archive Number: 20120728.1218652

UNDIAGNOSED DISEASE - UGANDA (02): (KIBAALE)
********************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

Date: Fri 27 Jul 2012
Source: chimpreports.com [edited]
http://www.chimpreports.com/index.php/people/health/5213-health-officials-rush-to-kibaale-as-strange-disease-kills-13.html

Health Officials Rush To Kibaale As Strange Disease Kills 13
--------------------------------------------------
The Ministry of Health is investigating a strange and contagious disease that has broken out in Nyamarunda sub-county in Kibaale district. The Director General of Health Services Dr. D.K.W Lwamafa says surveillance
reports from the investigations undertaken by theMinistry of Health, the district and international partners indicate that 21 people have been affected with 13 deaths since 21 Jun 2012. The cases have been reported largely from one family in Nyansigwa village in Nyamarunda parish.

"Preliminary investigations show that it is a highly contagious disease that is transmitted from one person to another and can easily cause death," says Lwamafa. Samples have been obtained from the cases and laboratory testing is underway in the Central Public Health Laboratory and at the Uganda Virus Research
Institute to confirm the disease.

Lwamafa notes the Ministry of Health team, working with partners is already on the ground to support the district to investigate and manage the cases. "The general public is hereby cautioned to avoid public gathering especially in the affected district and sick people are advised to promptly seek for medical care at the nearest health facility," cautions Lwamafa. He added burial of suspicious community deaths should be done under close supervision of district health workers and all suspicious deaths should be reported to the health workers. "The Ministry reassures the public that the reported strange disease is under intensive investigation and there should be no undue panic in the community," says Lwamafa. The Ministry promised to continue updating the public of any new information about the strange disease.

(By Gold Ronald)

--
Communicated by:
ProMEd-mail from HealthMap alerts
<promed@promedmail.org>

[[Since the previous report from Kibaale (see: ProMED-mail "Undiagnosed fatal disease - Uganda: (KI), archive number 20120725.1214822) the number of fatalities has increased from 12 to 13, but the number of affected persons remains 21.

The undiagnosed disease is characterised by high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and systems failure. It kills patients within 4 days to a week, and appears to be easily transmissible to carers. Haemorrhage is not mentioned as a significant feature which excludes some filovirus haemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola and Marburg. However, the signs and symptoms are compatible with an outbreak of Bundibugyo haemorrhagic fever, a filovirus haemorrhagic fever first identified in the Bundibugyo district of Western Uganda. Bundibugyo District is located in western Uganda, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo. After reports of a mysterious illness in Bundibugyo District, the presence of a novel 5th filovirus species, Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BEBOV), was identified in diagnostic samples submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in November 2007.

According to McNeil et al., in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 16, Number 12, December 2010
(http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/12/10-0627_article.htm) the onset of this filovirus haemorrhagic fever is associated with nonspecific signs and symptoms, including fever, myalgias, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; at later stages of disease, overt hemorrhage has been reported in about 45 percent of cases. In the outbreak of Bundibugyo filovirus haemorrhagic fever the proportion of deaths among those infected was lower (about 40 percent). In the original Bundibugyo outbreak the signs and symptoms included headache, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, conjunctivitis, skin rash, muscle pain, fatigue, difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, hiccups, bleeding, unexplained death, or contact with a patient with suspected Ebola haemorrhagic fever.

Kibaale District is a district in Western Uganda. Like most other Ugandan districts, it is named after its principal town, in this case Kibaale, where the district headquarters are located. Kibaale can be located on the map of the District of Uganda at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Uganda. This map shows that Kibaale and Bundibigyo are adjacent districts in the Western Region of Uganda. - Mod.CP

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1wa6.]

See Also