ViroBlogy

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

Uganda’s president has warned against shaking hands and other physical contact after the first death from the deadly Ebola virus in the capital.

The latest outbreak started in Uganda’s western Kibale district, about 200km from Kampala, and around 50km from the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

The fatal case in Kampala was a health worker who “had attended to the dead at Kagadi hospital” in Kibale, Health Minister Christine Ondoa told reporters.

And it’s deja vu all over again…this is how I started reporting virology on the Web, back in 1995 – with the Kikwit Ebola outbreak.  It’s possibly the first time Ebola has hit a major centre, so it could be interesting to see what develops.  Let’s hope nothing…!

I thank Russell Kightley Media for the Ebola virus graphic

See on news.ninemsn.com.au

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

South Africans need not be worried about contracting the Ebola virus after a new outbreak of the disease in Uganda.

The SA National Institute for Communicable Diseases said the risk of South Africans being infected was “extremely low”.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has placed a ban on physical contact in the country after the virus was reported in the capital, Kampala, for the first time.

The institute’s spokesman, Professor Lucile Blumberg, said yesterday: “There is no travel restriction. It is unlikely that patients from the Kibaale district, Uganda, who are very sick, will find their way here. One does need direct contact with infected patients to become ill.”

As with ANY Ebola outbreak in fact, the peril for any but the immediately exposed is more imgained than real.  What Ed Regis once termed “Ebola Preston”, or a virus that is spread by print and electronic media, rather than by droplets.

See on www.timeslive.co.za