WHO to probe Ebola-like illness in Sudan

By HENRY WASSWA, Associated Press Writer

KAMPALA, Uganda, may 20, 2004 (AP) — World Health Organization experts are investigating cases of an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever in southern Sudan , WHO officials said Thursday.

Fifteen cases of the mystery illness have been reported near Yambio, a southern Sudanese town close to the border with northern Uganda, since May 10, said Dr. Oladipo Walker, WHO’s resident representative in Uganda.

Walker said there had been no deaths reported.

“We are aware of the cases and we are investigating,” he said.

Two WHO experts in hemorrhagic fever and outbreak response arrived in Yambio on Wednesday to investigate the illness, said Cathy Roth, a member of WHO’s global alert and response team.

A preliminary investigation by WHO’s Sudan country office “suggested there was some sort of unusual illness and requested support,” Roth said by telephone from Geneva.

The preliminary report was conducted earlier this month.

Roth was unable to give details about the number of reported cases of the illness.

“The situation is calm. There have been no new reports of cases for the last few days,” she said.
Southern Sudan has been wracked by civil war since 1983; thousands of people are periodically displaced by fighting, and public health facilities are rare.
Last May, health experts identified a disease that killed 22 people in southern Sudan as yellow fever.

In 2000, an Ebola outbreak killed 173 in Gulu district in northern Uganda.

The Ebola virus is spread by contact with body fluids, including sweat and saliva. Outbreaks of the disease are rare, and no one knows where the virus lives when it isn’t infecting humans. The disease usually kills its victims so fast that it also destroys the host for the virus.

Ugandan health officials said they had circulated warnings in areas that border Sudan .

“We are on high alert and all health workers have been informed to put on gloves and use antiseptics,” said Dr. Paul Onek, Gulu district health officer. “We are reactivating the surveillance system.”