Two more die in Ugandan Ebola outbreak

Two more people, including a child, are suspected to have died of the Ebola virus while 11 more have been put into isolation in western Uganda, where the deadly haemorrhagic fever was first confirmed last Friday, health workers said yesterday.

So far 14 people have died of the disease. Ugandan officials fear a repeat of the 2000 outbreak, the most devastating to date: 425 people were infected, more than half of whom died.

Dan Kyamanywa, health officer for Kibaale district, where the outbreak started, said villagers had called medical officials yesterday to report that two more people had died, including a five-year-old boy.

Mr Kyamanywa said the latest deaths also occurred in Kibaale, about 100 miles west of the capital, and near the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus first emerged in 1976.

He added: “Also since yesterday, we have admitted 11 more suspected Ebola patients who are now in isolation.”