Ebola outbreak identified in Uganda

Jul 30 2012

"The world's first major outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever since 2009 has killed at least 14 of 20 people infected in a remote area of midwestern Uganda," the Wall Street Journal reports (Bariyo/McKay, 7/29). The Associated Press/Washington Post notes that at least six additional cases have been identified and that the disease has spread beyond the village where it was initially discovered (7/30). "Ugandan authorities did not initially detect an Ebola outbreak because patients weren't showing typical symptoms of the lethal virus, the nation's health minister told CNN on Sunday," the news service writes (7/29). According to the New York Times, "The strain of the virus, which in recent years has killed at a rate often above 70 percent of those infected, has been identified as Ebola Sudan, one of the virus's more common strains" (Kron, 7/28).