Aug 2 2012
The number of confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in Uganda has risen to 36, according to a WHO spokesperson, who added the disease remains confined to the rural Kibaale district, NPR's health blog "Shots" reports. "A team, led by the CDC, WHO and Uganda's Ministry of Health, are now on the scene to determine the scope of the outbreak and then control it," according to the blog (Doucleff, 7/31). CNN's "The Chart" blog reports that 14 people have died of the disease, which has a 25 to 90 percent fatality rate in African outbreaks, according to a WHO fact sheet (7/31).
In neighboring Kenya, laboratories are on high alert and protective medical gear is ready in border provinces, and Rwanda "has put in place measures aimed at protecting the public from this deadly disease but is also cautioning Rwandans to remain vigilant and report any suspected cases immediately," according to a statement from the Ministry of Health, Bloomberg Businessweek notes (Richardson, 7/31). National Geographic examines Ebola, which "is still so mysterious that no one knows how it originated, in which species it hides out between epidemics, ... how to treat it," or how it is transmitted (Than, 7/31).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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