Doctors are now testing the suspected cases urgently so they can separate confirmed cases from those who do not have the disease, Doctors Without Borders said. Health officials are hopeful there will be no repeat of the severity of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 2000, when 425 people were infected by the virus, more than half of whom died. Many patients fled Kagadi hospital when Ebola was confirmed, he said, and the hospital is struggling to respond to all the call-outs to suspected cases. KAMPALA Aug 2 (Reuters) - Residents in western Uganda said on Thursday they were too scared to go shopping in local markets, visit churches or mosques or travel freely for fear of catching the Ebola virus which has already killed 16 people. Thirty people are in an isolation ward at a hospital in Kibaale district, where the outbreak started, after 12 new cases were admitted. The deaths have stoked heightened fear about the spread of the virus, a highly infectious, often fatal agent spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. Health officials urged the public to report any suspected cases, to avoid contact with anyone infected and to wear gloves and masks while disinfecting bedding and clothing of infected people. However, doctors can treat opportunistic diseases and symptoms affecting patients including diarrhoea, vomiting and malaria, and some patients can survive. Ugandan authorities said last week they had confirmed the outbreak of Ebola in Kibaale, 170 km (100 miles) west of the capital Kampala, and near the Democratic Republic of Congo where the virus first emerged in 1976, taking its name from the Ebola River.
– The Ebola outbreak gripping western Uganda spread widely at the funeral of the first known victim, a 3-month-old girl whose mother also died, according to Doctors Without Borders. Of the 65 people who attended the baby's funeral, 15 contracted the deadly disease and at least 11 of them have died, AP reports. The outbreak has killed at least 16 people so far, and the hospital at the center of the outbreak is now dealing with 30 more suspected cases, including five from a prison, reports CNN. The government has urged Ugandans to avoid handshakes, casual sex, and home funerals, Reuters reports. People in western Uganda have been warned to avoid public gatherings and public transportation unless absolutely necessary. Health officials, hoping to make this outbreak less deadly than one in 2000 which killed more than 200 people, are isolating suspected victims and monitoring people they came into contact with.