Ugandan Doctor In Sierra Leone Catches Ebola
A Ugandan doctor, Michael Mawanda, working in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with the Ebola Virus Disease. Dr Michael Mawanda, 36, a Ug...
http://www.africaeagle.com/2014/10/ugandan-doctor-in-sierra-leone-catches.html
A Ugandan doctor, Michael Mawanda, working in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with the Ebola Virus Disease.
Dr Michael Mawanda, 36, a Ugandan doctor working in Sierra Leone, is just the latest medical doctor to catch the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
Dr Mawanda was last week flown to Frankfurt University hospital's isolation ward after he was diagnosed with the disease.
Dr Mawanda, who has been working under an Italian non-governmental organisation, arrived at the hospital on Friday. He is also the second Ugandan doctor to contract Ebola this year after Dr Samuel Muhumuza Mutooro who died in Liberia in July.
"His family notified the ministry of Health [Uganda] after he had been confirmed two days earlier. We are optimistic that he will be given proper treatment there," said Rukia Nakamatte, the ministry of Health publicist.
Mawanda previously worked as a paediatrician at Lacor hospital in Gulu. In its current wake, the disease has left more than 3,300 people dead and infected more than 7,000 others, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Moreover, the case of a one Thomas E. Duncan in the USA has worsened fears of the disease spreading globally. Duncan, a cameraman for the NBC news, was sent home to Dallas in Texas under the mistaken belief that he had a mild fever. He is now being treated at a Texas hospital. At this rate, some analysts predict, between 20,000 and 100,000 people could catch the virus by the end of the year.
Terrorism:
Meanwhile, some scientists now predict that the potential of it being used as a weapon of bioterrorism - by deliberately spreading it - is closer than ever before.
"There has been an attempt in one country to culture the virus as a weapon of bioterrorism and Ebola is now a real threat as there is no cure or vaccine. In the event that it is turned into a weapon of bioterrorism, the consequences will be severe," Lonzy Ojok, a professor of veterinary pathology, said at a conference in Kampala last month.
The conference was organised by Makerere University's college of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB), and discussed Ebola and other emerging threats in Africa.
Prof Ojok, however, noted that to turn the virus into a biological weapon, terrorists would need a very high-tech laboratory and a live host (human or animal) infected with the virus, which may not be easy.
Source: The Observer
Dr Michael Mawanda, 36, a Ugandan doctor working in Sierra Leone, is just the latest medical doctor to catch the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
Dr Mawanda was last week flown to Frankfurt University hospital's isolation ward after he was diagnosed with the disease.
Dr Mawanda, who has been working under an Italian non-governmental organisation, arrived at the hospital on Friday. He is also the second Ugandan doctor to contract Ebola this year after Dr Samuel Muhumuza Mutooro who died in Liberia in July.
"His family notified the ministry of Health [Uganda] after he had been confirmed two days earlier. We are optimistic that he will be given proper treatment there," said Rukia Nakamatte, the ministry of Health publicist.
Mawanda previously worked as a paediatrician at Lacor hospital in Gulu. In its current wake, the disease has left more than 3,300 people dead and infected more than 7,000 others, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Moreover, the case of a one Thomas E. Duncan in the USA has worsened fears of the disease spreading globally. Duncan, a cameraman for the NBC news, was sent home to Dallas in Texas under the mistaken belief that he had a mild fever. He is now being treated at a Texas hospital. At this rate, some analysts predict, between 20,000 and 100,000 people could catch the virus by the end of the year.
Terrorism:
Meanwhile, some scientists now predict that the potential of it being used as a weapon of bioterrorism - by deliberately spreading it - is closer than ever before.
"There has been an attempt in one country to culture the virus as a weapon of bioterrorism and Ebola is now a real threat as there is no cure or vaccine. In the event that it is turned into a weapon of bioterrorism, the consequences will be severe," Lonzy Ojok, a professor of veterinary pathology, said at a conference in Kampala last month.
The conference was organised by Makerere University's college of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB), and discussed Ebola and other emerging threats in Africa.
Prof Ojok, however, noted that to turn the virus into a biological weapon, terrorists would need a very high-tech laboratory and a live host (human or animal) infected with the virus, which may not be easy.
Source: The Observer
