Two miners were diagnosed with the fast spreading Marburg virus, which causes a rare hemorrhagic fever, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A 29-year-old patient died and about 40 other people working at Kitaka gold mine were quarantined. The authorities checked a total of 155 people - 97 in the capital Kampala - after potential contacts with the victims.
Uganda had not seen the outbreak of the Marburg virus, a rare hemorrhagic illness, for 30 years. AP quotes Health Minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga as saying, "Theoretically the transmission chain has been broken, the transmission has been stopped and the outbreak contained."
The Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg hemorrhagic fever. Both the disease and virus are related to Ebola and originate in the same part of Africa (Uganda and Eastern Congo).
With death rate higher than 90 percent and no treatment or vaccine, Marburg virus can cause headaches, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. In severe cases, the central nervous system is attacked, and patients may bleed from the eyes, ears and elsewhere.
Many researchers believe that people may become infected by the virus after being bitten by bats or by insects or other animals that have been infected by bats or by breathing in air carrying virus particles from bat feces.
There is no specific antiviral therapy indicated for treatment Marburg, and hospital care is usually supportive in nature. Hypotension and shock may require early administration of vasopressors and haemodynamic monitoring with attention to fluid and electrolyte balance, circulatory volume, and blood pressure.
