A new Ebola outbreak has killed three people in central Uganda, the health ministry said Thursday, five weeks after the country was declared free from the deadly virus, dpa reported. A similar outbreak of the virus in the western district of Kibaale which began four months ago left 17 people dead. "The Ministry of Health has moved fast and pieced up all the necessary measures to control this highly contagious disease. The response teams are already on the ground," according to a statement. Health Minister Christine Ondoa told reporters that the first victim was a motorcycle transporter who suffered from high hemorrhagic fever and bleeding. He died on October 25 but his case had not been investigated immediately. Ondoa also reported that a 25-year-old woman who had nursed the first victim died on November 10 and another man from the same family died a day before. They were all admitted to a hospital located about 60 kilometres north of the capital Kampala. "Laboratory investigations from the Uganda Virus Institute have shown that all of them had died of Ebola of the Sudan strain. Five suspected (cases) are being monitored by the surveillance team," the minister said. After emergency measures with the help of the World Health Organization and the US Center for Disease Control, the Health Ministry had declared Uganda free of Ebola on October 4, following months of panic in the western areas of the country where dozens of cases were reported. The East African country had also just recovered from an outbreak of Marburg, an Ebola-like disease that left six people dead in the south-western district of Kabale.
