WHO says Uganda’s Ebola caseload rises to 12

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KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda’s Ebola virus caseload has risen to 12, up from 10, with two people who died early last month being considered probable cases, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

On Saturday WHO reported the death of the latest victim of the outbreak, a four-year-old boy who died last week at the country’s national referral hospital, Mulago.

WHO listed the mother of that boy and her other child as probable Ebola cases in its latest weekly bulletin on disease outbreaks.

The mother died on February 6, a few days after giving birth “following an acute illness,” the WHO said, adding that the newborn died on February 12.

“No laboratory tests were conducted following their deaths, and they were respectively buried,” WHO said.

The four-year-old boy who died on Saturday was taken to four health facilities before his death, and was not a known contact of the outbreak’s first case, WHO said.

Uganda declared the outbreak of the Sudan strain of the highly infectious and often fatal haemorrhagic disease in January.

Ebola symptoms include fever, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue.

The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal to raise $11.2 million to help fund the country’s response to the outbreak after the country’s health budget was strained by U.S. cuts to foreign aid.

Uganda has launched a trial vaccination programme against the Sudan strain of Ebola. Existing vaccines are for the Zaire strain of Ebola, which was behind recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema, Editing by Franklin Paul)