Ebola kills second person in Uganda

A second person infected with the Ebola virus has died in Uganda, the health ministry said Thursday, after a family exposed to the disease quietly crossed the border from Congo.

Uganda health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona confirmed the death of the 50-year-old woman overnight. Her 5year-old grandson was the first confirmed death from Ebola in Uganda on Wednesday. The boy’s 3-year-old brother also is infected.

Uganda’s health ministry said all members of the Congolese-Ugandan family, including a 6-month-old baby, have been sent to Congo for monitoring and experimental treatments as part of clinical trials. There is no licensed treatment for the virus, which can spread quickly via close contact with bodily fluids of those infected and can be fatal in up to 90% of cases.

More than 1,400 people have died in this outbreak declared in August in eastern Congo, one of the world’s most turbulent regions, where rebel attacks and resistance by community members wary of authorities have badly hampered Ebola containment work.

Authorities on Wednesday said the family had traveled from Uganda to Congo because the boys’ grandfather was ill. The World Health Organization said he died of Ebola, and officials believe those who mourned him became infected, too.

Health teams in Uganda “are not panicking,” Henry Mwebesa, national director of health services, said Wednesday. For the first time, an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine is being widely used, with more than 132,000 in Congo receiving it.