Suspected Ebola patient dies in Lira
Medics at Lira Regional Referral Hospital. Courtesy photo
What you need to know:
- At 5pm, when the ambulance arrived at the hospital with the dead body, the two workers and two other relatives of the deceased were immediately put into confinement pending results of analysis of samples that were drawn from the dead body and taken to Virus Research Institute in Entebbe.
LIRA. Medical workers at Lira Regional Referral Hospital have isolated two workers of Amolatar Health Centre IV after a suspected Ebola patient they were delivering to the hospital died on the way.
The deceased (whose name have been withheld by the hospital authorities), a resident of Akongomit village, Awelo Sub County was referred to Lira hospital after administrators of Amolatar Health Centre IV suspected him to be suffering from Ebola.
He was admitted at Amolatar Health Centre IV on Wednesday and diagnosed with Malaria.
The Amolatar District Health Officer Dr Simon Aliga said the deceased’s condition worsened on Friday morning and showed symptoms of Ebola.
“We had fears when his condition worsened on Friday. Blood came out from his mouth and anus. We sourced an ambulance and set off to transfer him to Lira hospital, unfortunately he died before we could reach Lira town,” Dr Aliga said.
At 5pm, when the ambulance arrived at the hospital with the dead body, the two workers and two other relatives of the deceased were immediately put into a confinement, pending results from the samples that were drawn from the deceased's body and taken to Virus Research Institute in Entebbe.
When contacted on Saturday, Ms Winnie Serwanja the Principal administrator of Lira Regional Referral Hospital told Daily Monitor that she was in Kampala and would be back for work on Monday.
“Our offices do not open on weekends and I may only be able to share more with you in the new week,” Ms Serwanja said.
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, Ministry of Health’s Public Relations Officer told Daily Monitor that the ministry was still waiting for results of the tests yet to be released.
“Let us wait for the results, the public do not need to worry. It is only until the results of the tests are out, that is when we can tell what exactly the person died of,” Mr Ainebyoona said.
