JAKARTA - The African public health agency said on Thursday the Ebola outbreak in Uganda was "not out of control" and was still under control, despite an increase in cases that had spread to the capital Kampala.
"Ebolic rice in Uganda cannot be separated from control. It is still under control," Ahmed Oguwell Ouma, acting director of the African CDC (African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), said at an online briefing.
Furthermore, Ouma explained, for now it is impossible to project the spread of disease in the future.
The virus circulating in Uganda is a type of Sudanese Ebola, whose vaccine has not been proven, unlike the more common type of Zare seen during the recent outbreak in neighboring countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The number of confirmed Ebola cases has risen to 109 and the outbreak has claimed 30 lives, Ugandan Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said on Wednesday, adding that the government was setting up an additional care center.
Fifteen of the confirmed cases included among health workers, six of whom have died, he told a news conference.
"The Ministry of Health, with the support of partners, is preparing additional care facilities in the Mulago sports field," he explained, adding that the new center would increase the number of beds available to treat Ebola patients to 351.
Aceng said his ministry would evaluate the efficacy of three Sudanese Ebola vaccine candidates in the coming weeks, one developed by the University of Oxford, one created by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in the United States and another by US drugmaker Merck & Co.
"The main goal is to evaluate their efficacy to protect the main contact of Ebola patients within 29 days of contact," said Aceng.
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