JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about an increase in the spread of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, after eight recent cases of Ebola reportedly unknown had links to current patients.
A WHO briefing said preliminary investigations into cases by the Ugandan Ministry of Health showed they were not contacts of people who were already known to have Ebola.
"We remain concerned, there may be more chain of transmission and more contact than we know in the communities affected," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
The WHO said there were 60 confirmed cases and 20 likely since the Ebola outbreak in Uganda began last month. Meanwhile, the death toll was recorded at 44 people.
It is known that the Ebola strain that spreads in Uganda is the Sudanese strain. Vaccines and existing therapies are known to be unable to deal with the strain.
However, the Ugandan Government in collaboration with WHO conducted a trial of two vaccines in the early stages of development targeting the Sudanese strain. One was developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute, another one created by the Sabin Institute in the United States.
Last Saturday Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the government implemented several lockdown measures, including limiting movement and closing places of worship and entertainment in the districts of Mubende and Kassanda in central Uganda which is the epicenter of the epidemic.
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