Child’s death in Uganda first Ebola case outside Congo

Fears worsened Wednesday that the year-old Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo could spread to neighboring countries, as a boy in Uganda died from the disease and two of his close relatives there were infected.

The boy, 5, from a Congolese family who had crossed into western Uganda on June 9, was the first confirmed case of Ebola outside the Democratic Republic of Congo since the highly infectious illness erupted last summer in the eastern part of the vast African country.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, directorgeneral of the World Health Organization, announced that he was convening a meeting of a group of outside expert advisers Friday to assess whether the Ebola spread had become an international public health emergency.

The WHO said Wednesday that the child had died and that his 50-year-old grandmother and 3-year-old brother were confirmed to have tested positive for Ebola. The organization said a hospital in a Uganda border town, Bwera, was treating them in isolation and that at least eight people might have been in contact with the first victim, raising the risk of further infections.

Ebola, a viral disease that causes internal bleeding, is spread through bodily fluids of infected people and is extremely contagious.

“The confirmation of new Ebola cases in Uganda is tragic but unfortunately not surprising,” Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a health research institution, said. “This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.”

The Congo outbreak is the second-deadliest on record, infecting more than 2,000 people and causing nearly 1,400 deaths in the country as of June 10, according to the WHO. Its epicenter in a conflict zone has complicated efforts to contain the disease.

Health workers have been attacked and killed, and some treatment centers have been destroyed.

International health experts have expressed worry about a recent acceleration in the number of Ebola infections. Though it took about eight months to reach 1,000 cases, it has taken only a few months to surpass 2,000.

The WHO’S Emergency Committee has twice before concluded that the outbreak does not represent a global health threat, partly because it had not spread across borders.