Ebola has claimed the life of another health worker as the country struggles to contain the spread of the virus.
Mubende Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Rosemary Byabashaija confirmed the death identifying the deceased as Dr John Grace Walugembe who succumbed to the disease late Sunday.
“It’s too sad to lose such important people in the community”, she told Monitor on phone.
Dr Walugembe, a laboratory technician at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital and a proprietor of Life Care Medical Clinic in Kirungi South Division in Mubende municipality is the fifth health worker to die from Ebola since the latest outbreak in Uganda was confirmed on September 20.
On October 10, the Mubende Ebola task force together with a health surveillance team closed Dr Walugembe’s clinic over attending to a woman who later died from his clinic with signs and symptoms of Ebola.
“We closed the clinic which had been attending to Ebola suspects after a woman died from that clinic bleeding from the mouth and nose on October 9, 2022,” RDC Byabasaija said on October 11.
Dr Walugembe was also picked from his clinic on Monday and later tested positive for Ebola. By the time of his death, he was receiving treatment from Mubende Regional Referral Hospital.
The case-fatality rate for the disease ranges from 25-90 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is higher than that of Covid-19 whose case-fatality rate is at least 3 percent.
According to the Health Ministry, EVD is transmitted through contact with the blood, stool or fluids of an infected person and objects that have been contaminated with body fluids from an infected person.
The known symptoms of Ebola include high body temperatures, fatigue, chest pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, unexplained bleeding, yellowing of the eyes. Bleeding is usually a late presentation after the above symptoms. (Monitor)