Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 17 deaths, all monitoring completed, outbreak declared over

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/17+patients+cleared+of+Ebola++get+Shs50+000/-/688334/1474490/-/jvqtp5z/-/index.html?

17 patients cleared of Ebola, get Shs50,000
Kibaale District health authorities on Tuesday discharged 10 patients who were admitted at Kagadi Hospital on suspicion of being infected with Ebola. The district health officer, Dr Dan Kyamanywa, said a total of 17 patients have been discharged from the hospital and re-united with their families.

?We have seven patients admitted in the high risk isolation ward out of which three have tested positive but they are clinically improving,? Mr Kyamanywa told this newspaper on Wednesday. He said medics were monitoringmore than 400 people in communities suspected of having been in contact with Ebola patients. ?Out of these, 94 have been monitored for 21 days and have been declared Ebola free,? Mr Kyamanywa added.

Those discharged were given blankets, mattresses, sauce pans, cups, plates, rice, among other items. Most of those discharged were admitted at the hospital on July 29 after showing signs similar to of Ebola but they tested negative.

Also discharged were Aston Byamukama, Steven Byaruhanga and Robert Bitamazire inmates from Kibaale Prison. They, however, were taken back to prison. Dr Kyamanywa said the World Health Organisation also gave start-up pocket money of Shs50,000 to each discharged patient.

Meanwhile, health personnel called police to close Muhorro and Nyamarunda markets which attempted to operate last weekend despite a ban. The district Ebola taskforce vice chairperson, Mr Stephen Mfashingabo, said traders reported to the markets in the morning. ?We acted swiftly and police managed to enforce the ban on markets remaining closed until the district is declared Ebola-free,? Mr Mfashingabo said.

The district LC5 chairperson also banned social gatherings such as weddings to minimise possibilities of escalating further infections of the highly contagious disease. Meanwhile, two people suspected to be suffering from Ebola have been admitted at Kisizi Missionary Hospital in Rukungiri District and put in an isolation unit.

One of the patients is said to have been in Kibaale District three weeks ago but later decided to go back to his home in Rukungiri where he later on fell sick and developed Ebola symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea.

He was admitted on Sunday. The second patient arrived at the facility on Tuesday. ?The patients have been isolated and their samples have been sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute Entebbe for screening,? Sister Maureen Tumwebaze, the nurse in charge of the isolation section, said on Tuesday

[Giuseppe]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

[Source: World Health Organization, full page: (LINK). Edited.]

Ebola in Uganda ? update



10 August 2012


The Ministry of Health (MoH) is continuing to work with partners to respond to the Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak in Uganda.

As of 8 August 2012, the MoH has recorded a total of 23 probable and confirmed cases, including 16 deaths.

Of these, 10 cases have been laboratory confirmed by the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe.

The most recent confirmed case was isolated in Kagadi isolation facility on 4 August 2012.

So far, samples from other districts tested have been negative for Ebola. Suspected cases that tested negative during the laboratory investigations have been treated for their ailments and discharged following recovery.

All people who came into contact with probable and confirmed cases of Ebola are being followed-up for a period of 21 days. Among the contact persons, 190 have completed 21 days of close monitoring, while 185 are still being closely monitored for any possible sign or symptom of illness.



Response

The Government is closely working with partners to implement interventions to respond to the outbreak. The partners include African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), EMESCO Foundation (a local NGO), Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS), M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), and WHO. WHO is also coordinating with Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) partners.

Efforts are in progress to mobilize additional resources to respond to the outbreak.

With the support of MSF, a temporary isolation facility for suspected cases has been established in Kagadi, Kibaale district.

Active surveillance is ongoing in and around Kibaale district, where the index case was identified. Teams are also being trained to provide psycho-social support to families affected by the outbreak.

Campaigns to raise awareness about prevention and control of Ebola are being carried out throughout the country. The MoH is advising the public to take measures to avert the spread of the disease and to report any suspected patient to the nearest health unit. Public announcements are being disseminated in 11 local languages on 20 radio stations at the national level. At the local level, over 120 URCS volunteers are conducting active door-to-door and community campaigns in over 85 villages.



Neighbouring countries


Countries sharing a border with Uganda are taking steps to enhance surveillance regarding Ebola; at the time of this update, none of them have reported any confirmed cases. WHO does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions are applied to Uganda.

- ------

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

http://www.promedmail.org/

Published Date: 2012-08-10 16:54:07
Subject: PRO/EDR> Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Uganda (15): WHO update
Archive Number: 20120810.1238765

EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - UGANDA (15): WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION UPDATE
************************************************** *********************
A ProMED-mail post

http://www.promedmail.org

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases

http://www.isid.org

Date: Fri 10 Aug 2012
Source: World Health Organisation (WHO), CSR, disease Outbreak News [edited]

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2012_08_10/en/index.html

Ebola in Uganda - WHO update
----------------------------
The Ministry of Health (MoH) is continuing to work with partners to respond to the Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak in Uganda. As of Wed 8 Aug 2012, the MoH has recorded a total of 23 probable and confirmed cases, including 16 deaths. Of these, 10 cases have been laboratory confirmed by the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe.

The most recent confirmed case was isolated in Kagadi isolation facility on 4 Aug 2012. So far, samples from other districts tested have been negative for Ebola. Suspected cases that tested negative during the laboratory investigations have been treated for their ailments and discharged following recovery. All people who came into contact with probable and confirmed cases of Ebola are being followed-up for a period of 21 days. Among the contact persons, 190 have completed 21 days of close monitoring, while 185 are still being closely monitored for any possible sign or symptom of illness.

The Government is closely working with partners to implement interventions to respond to the outbreak. The partners include African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), EMESCO Foundation (a local NGO), Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), and WHO. WHO is also coordinating with Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) partners.

Efforts are in progress to mobilize additional resources to respond to the outbreak. With the support of MSF, a temporary isolation facility for suspected cases has been established in Kagadi, Kibaale district. Active surveillance is ongoing in and around Kibaale district, where the index case was identified. Teams are also being trained to provide psycho-social support to families affected by the outbreak.

Campaigns to raise awareness about prevention and control of Ebola are being carried out throughout the country. The MoH is advising the public to take measures to avert the spread of the disease and to report any suspected patient to the nearest health unit. Public announcements are being disseminated in 11 local languages on 20 radio stations at the national level. At the local level, over 120 URCS volunteers are conducting active door-to-door and community campaigns in over 85 villages.

Neighbouring countries
----------------------
Countries sharing a border with Uganda are taking steps to enhance surveillance regarding Ebola; at the time of this update, none of them have reported any confirmed cases. WHO does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions are applied to Uganda.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Marianne Hopp

[The confused reporting of this outbreak is gradually being resolved and it seems likely that the outbreak has been contained to the Kibaale area. 6 of the 16 deaths attributed to ebolavirus infection have still to be confirmed by laboratory investigation. A 17th death reported earlier (see: Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Uganda (10): (KI) 17th fatality 20120804.1228678) seems not to have been verified subsequently. A total of 190 contacts have been released from surveillance, while another 189 are still being monitored.

There has been a commendably rapid and efficient response to this outbreak and no travel restrictions have been recommended.

Kibaale District is a district in Western Uganda. It is named after its principal town where the district headquarters are located. Kibaale can be located on the map of the District of Uganda at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Uganda. A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1wa6. - Mod.CP]

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19224159?

11 August 2012 Last updated at 07:59 ET

Uganda's deadly Ebola outbreak under control, says MSF

The outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Uganda appears to be under control, says the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

The last confirmed death from Ebola took place 11 days ago, MSF epidemiologist Dr Paul Roddy told the BBC.

But he warned that if a pocket of the virus was missed it could erupt once more.

He said there had been 19 confirmed and probable deaths during the outbreak.

"We are still receiving admissions of individuals that meet the clinical and epidemiological case definitions, but we have not had a laboratory-confirmed Ebola death in 11 days, and the last identified individual that we received with a positive laboratory confirmation was six days ago," said Dr Roddy.

Dr Roddy said that if there were no confirmed cases for 42 days the outbreak could be considered contained.

[snip]

[Pathfinder]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

Perfect storm: Did refugees fleeing Congo conflict bring Ebola with them?

11 Aug 2012
Report?EastAfrican

Violent conflict, porous borders, regional integration and poor healthcare infrastructure have created the perfect storm to make the region particularly susceptible to the deadly disease.

The Ebola outbreak in western Uganda over the past two weeks reveals how violent conflict, porous borders and poor healthcare infrastructure have created the perfect storm to make the region particularly susceptible to the deadly disease.

The latest outbreak has deepened the puzzle for scientists who are wondering why in recent years the epicentre of the haemorrhagic fever appears to have shifted from the Congo and Central African Republic to Uganda.

Two suspected cases are under investigation in Tanzania in Kagera Region near the border with Uganda, and another two suspected cases in Kenya?one in Central and the other in Western Province. None of the cases have been confirmed to be Ebola.

The latest outbreak in Uganda has been linked an influx of an estimated 20,000 refugees from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing fighting in North Kivu province. But a direct cause-and-effect link between the entry of refugees and the outbreak of the disease has not been established.

Still, porous borders are a feature of the entire East African region, particularly when violent conflict pushes large numbers of people across borders.
...
Like Marburg, Ebola is a virus that is passed on from and/or by primates to humans, but the puzzle that scientists are trying to unravel is why especially Uganda, South Sudan and DR Congo, are the most susceptible to Ebola outbreaks.

Dr Roddy said that recent research shows that the geographical distribution of Ebola stretches across the African continent from Uganda to Gabon, and from Sudan all the way to Angola.

However, ?evidence from individual cases shows that the virus is in circulation from Central African Republic.?

In essence, other regions in the greater East Africa are not prone to the Ebola virus because they lie out of its geographical loop despite the fact that humans in those regions also interact with the forests.
...
?To be able to predict where the next outbreak is going to be, you have to know what carries the virus. Right now, the reservoir animal is not known; it could be an animal, insect or fruit bats,? says Dr Julius Lutwama, the principal research officer and head of National Influenza Centre at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI).

?You have to look at the other places where Ebola first occurred before Uganda, mainly Sudan and the Congo. There is no healthcare system in these areas; it is possible that people contract the Ebola virus and just die.

"Without the healthcare system detecting the epidemic, it is difficult to say which country has the highest incidence. By contrast, there is vigilance and a fairly better healthcare system in Uganda, which is why the virus seems to strike here more frequently,? he said.
...

Full text:

http://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/perfect-storm-did-refugees-fleeing-congo-conflict-bring-ebola-them

[Laidback Al]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

The article posted by Pathfinder above politicizes the latest Ebola outbreak in Uganda by trying to tie it to regional conflict, porous borders, and refugee migrations. It does a disservice to dedicated HCWs trying to understand and contain the spread of this outbreak in Uganda.

The latest outbreak has deepened the puzzle for scientists who are wondering why in recent years the epicentre of the haemorrhagic fever appears to have shifted from the Congo and Central African Republic to Uganda. . . .

The latest outbreak in Uganda has been linked an influx of an estimated 20,000 refugees from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing fighting in North Kivu province. But a direct cause-and-effect link between the entry of refugees and the outbreak of the disease has not been established.
. . .

Dr Roddy said that recent research shows that the geographical distribution of Ebola stretches across the African continent from Uganda to Gabon, and from Sudan all the way to Angola. However, ?evidence from individual cases shows that the virus is in circulation from Central African Republic.? . . .

There is no evidence that the current outbreak in Uganda was imported from Democratic Republic of the Congo by refugees. The earliest known cases in this outbreak was a large family cluster of deaths, all associated with attending a relative's funeral. All were local residents of Kibaale District.

My quick internet search failed to revealed any recent reported human cases or other outbreaks of Ebola from the Central African Republic. ( link link )

Subtly inflammatory articles are not appropriate when it comes to infectious disease issues in Central Africa.

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

The above article is making an argument out of context. They are not claiming that this current Ebola outbreak is the result of export from Congo, CAR, or DRC. Rather, they are arguing that the mass migration of people in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a result of those conflicts may have resulted in the creation of a zoonotic source in bats or gorillas in Uganda whose origin was human infections in migrants. This outbreak could then have been caused by the zoonotic focus.

It would be similar to how plague is considered native to the Southwestern United States, but the original source of the bacterium found in animals there was a human outbreak in the early 1900s.

Obviously, as DRC, CAR, and Congo have not reported any Ebola cases since January 2009 at the latest, they could not directly be the source of the current outbreak in Kibaale.

[sharon sanders]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

Please see:


Dem. Rep. Congo - 5 suspected cases of Ebola virus in Eastern province - tests pending

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16-25? deaths, 36 in isolation Kagadi hospital, 398 contacts monitored

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/634018-How-the-deadly-Ebola-came-back.html

How the deadly Ebola came back
Publish Date: Aug 12, 2012

Fifty two days after the first patient died of Ebola in Kibaale district, the outbreak is still shrouded in mystery. A mother left her two-month-old baby sleeping in a mud and wattle hut and went to her crop garden.

On return, she found the baby dead. The baby?s left palm had the sign of an animal bite. Neighbours who spoke to Sunday Vision suspected that it could have been a monkey, but no one really saw it.

About 300 metres away from the family is a 10-acre forest and there are bushes in between, so it would be possible for a monkey or any other small animal to move unnoticed.

Two days later, a 15-year-old girl, Winnie Mbabazi, who touched the baby?s wound, became sick and died on June 21. Eventually, nine members of the family died but the baby?s mother did not become sick. Then the baby?s father, Fred Bahemuka and a paternal uncle fell sick.

According to the national Ebola task force, Mbabazi was the first patient.

However, the locals insist she got the disease from the baby. Medical theory indicates that an Ebola outbreak starts when an infected animal, most likely a monkey or a bat, infects a human being. Through direct contact, she/he then infects other people.

However, it is not clear how animals become infected and where the virus hides in the environment before infecting animals.

Critics have blamed the Ministry of Health for taking long to diagnose Ebola.

[snip, but read the whole article!]

[sharon sanders]

Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16 deaths, 165 being contacts monitored, 243 have tested negative

Ebola outbreak under control ? health official
Publish Date: Aug 14, 2012

snip

"We can now comfortably say that it is under control, but cannot say that we are absolutely finished with it," Paul Kaggwa, assistant commissioner at the Ugandan health ministry told AFP.

The last confirmed case was on August 4, a little over a week back.

Sixteen people have died since the latest outbreak started in early July in Uganda's western Kibale district, some 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Kampala, and around 50 kilometres from the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

A total of 165 people living in the community remain under observation, while 243 people who were thought to have come into contact with the virus have turned out negative, Kaggwa said.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/634091-ebola-outbreak-under-control---health-official.html

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16 deaths, 165 contacts being monitored, 243 have tested negative

http://www.chimpreports.com/index.php/people/health/5499-exclusive-another-ebola-case-suspected-in-jinja.html

EXCLUSIVE: Another Ebola Case Suspected In Jinja
By Dorothy Aine 13 hours 19 minutes ago

Another case of Ebola has been reported in Jinja, Eastern Uganda on Thursday.

According to an Eye Report by our reader, a one Nyanzi, a baby which was admitted at Jinja Hospital Children’s Unit died on Monday.

“Parents have been refused to take their baby for burial,” Nyanzi told our news desk today morning.

If true, the development could expose the health ministry’s failure to contain the deadly epidemic and also confirm reports that it is spreading to different parts of the country.

However, according to Dr Ruth Jane Aceng, Director General of Health Services at the Health Ministry, there has been no confirmed Ebola for the last ten days in the country.

“The last confirmed case of Ebola was admitted on August 4, 2012 in Kagadi hospital. So far, a total of 43 patients have been discharged from the isolation facility at Kagadi hospital,” she said Tuesday.

Aceng says the total number of patients on admission is 11.

“Of these, two are confirmed cases of Ebola while 9 are suspected cases currently undergoing investigations. The discharged patients have been supported to reintegrate into the communities are being followed by our surveillance teams,” she notes.

[snip]

[Pathfinder]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16 deaths, 165 contacts being monitored, 243 have tested negative

Ebola Outbreak in Uganda (As of 14 August 2012)

14 August 2012. The Ministry of Health of Uganda (MoH) continues to work with partners including WHO, CDC, Red Cross, MSF, World Vision, PREDICT, among others to control the outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Kibaale district. The national and district task forces continue to meet daily to coordinate the response to the outbreak.

To date, 24 probable and confirmed cases including 16 deaths have been reported. Ten cases have been laboratory confirmed by the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe. The most recent confirmed case was admitted in Kagadi isolation facility on 4 August 2012.

Suspected cases which tested negative during the laboratory investigations have been discarded as Ebola patients, treated symptomatically for their ailments and discharged following recovery. A total of forty three (43) people have been discharged from the isolation facility including one confirmed case. With the support of the psychosocial team, these 43 people have been counseled prior to discharge and reintegrated into the community. Even for the people who were negative for Ebola, psychosocial counseling of the communities to which they are returning, has been very important. It has allayed fears and reduced stigma, enabling them to be accepted back in the community.

All contacts of probable and confirmed cases are followed up daily for 21 days and are monitored for any possible signs or symptoms of illness. All alerts of suspected cases in the other districts have been investigated and are negative for Ebola.

In Kibaale district, the MoH is working in close coordination with M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) in clinical management of suspected and confirmed cases.

Social mobilization teams comprising of Red Cross volunteers and village health teams have reached most of the villages and households in the most affected sub-counties in Kibaale district. These activities are reinforced by the distribution of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials, and by the broadcast of health awareness messages on radio and by film vans.

.../

http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes/dpc/epidemic-a-pandemic-alert-and-response/outbreak-news/3657-ebola-outbreak-in-uganda-as-of-14-august-2012.html

[Laidback Al]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16 deaths, 165 contacts being monitored, 243 have tested negative

Post #251 reports a child died of suspected Ebola at Jinja Hospital. So far, beside the death of a HCW in a hospital in Kampala, only Kibaale District in western Uganda has had confirmed Ebola cases.

[alert]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16 deaths, 165 contacts being monitored, 243 have tested negative

http://www.promedmail.org/

Published Date: 2012-08-15 17:20:38
Subject: PRO/EDR> Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Uganda (19): (KI) nomenclature
Archive Number: 20120815.1246087

EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - UGANDA (19): (KIBAALE) NOMENCLATURE
************************************************** ***********
A ProMED-mail post

http://www.promedmail.org

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases

http://www.isid.org

Date: Wed 15 Aug 2012
From: Jens Kuhn [edited]


(1) Since ProMED is an international forum, I would find it a better choice to use internationally accepted disease names. According to the WHO International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD-10), the disease caused by ebolaviruses is called "Ebola virus disease (EVD)" and not "Ebola haemorrhagic fever" (http://apps.who.int/classifications/...10/en#/A90-A99). EHF is certainly used a lot in the literature but mainly by people who do not get in touch with patients and simply don't know any better (i.e. do not have to classify diseases according to existing legal frameworks and therefore don't know that ICD-10 exists or how important it is). Also, the term "hemorrhagic fever" is always problematic, as its definition has not been updated since the 1960s and early 1970s (Gajdusek, Smorodintsev). Everybody seems to know what a viral hemorrhagic fever is, until you ask them and push for an answer.

[In defence of ProMED-mail, we did stress in the 1st report of the Kibaale outbreak that the disease was not haemorrhagic, but subsequently did not edit out the invariably used "haemorrhagic" descriptor. - Mod.CP]

(2) I am the current Chair of the Filoviridae Study Group of the ICTV [International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses]. We have recently proposed a new taxonomic and nomenclatural framework for filoviruses in an article published in the Archives of Virology [reference and abstract appended below], which was subsequently accepted and ratified by the ICTV and published in the 9th Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Academic Press 2012). Together with taxa name changes, we have also changed the virus names to make them more distinct (no confusion with species names anymore, abbreviations that don't sound alike when pronounced, etc.). Consequently, the virus that causes the current outbreak in Uganda is "Sudan virus (SUDV)", not "Sudan ebolavirus (SEBOV)". SUDV is one of 5 known ebolaviruses, 4 of which cause EVD in humans.

--
Jens H Kuhn, MD, PhD, PhD, MS (Contractor)
Lead Virologist
Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick)
Office 3A110
Laboratory 3A105
NIH/NIAID/DCR
B-8200 Research Plaza
Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA


[Up to the present, ProMED-mail has been using the nomenclature published in the 8th Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. We thank Dr Kuhn for bringing attention to the revised taxonomy and nomenclature recently published in the 9th Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

The following is the reference and abstract of the paper summarising the revision of the taxonomy of the Filviridae that was subsequently ratified by the ICTV:

Reference: Arch Virol. 2010 Dec;155(12):2083-103. Epub 2010 October 30.

Title: Proposal for a revised taxonomy of the family Filoviridae: classification, names of taxa and viruses, and virus abbreviations.

Authors: Kuhn JH, Becker S, Ebihara H, Geisbert TW, Johnson KM, Kawaoka Y, et al.

At: Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, National Interagency Biodefense Campus, B-8200 Research Plaza, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.

Abstract:
"The taxonomy of the family Filoviridae (marburgviruses and ebolaviruses) has changed several times since the discovery of its members, resulting in a plethora of species and virus names and abbreviations. The current taxonomy has only been partially accepted by most laboratory virologists. Confusion likely arose for several reasons: species names that consist of several words or which (should) contain diacritical marks, the current orthographic identity of species and virus names, and the similar pronunciation of several virus abbreviations in the absence of guidance for the correct use of vernacular names. To rectify this problem, we suggest (1) to retain the current species names Reston ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, and Zaire ebolavirus, but to replace the name Cote d'Ivoire ebolavirus [sic] with Tai Forest ebolavirus and Lake Victoria marburgvirus with Marburg marburgvirus; (2) to revert the virus names of the type marburgviruses and ebolaviruses to those used for decades in the field (Marburg virus instead of Lake Victoria marburgvirus and Ebola virus instead of Zaire ebolavirus); (3) to introduce names for the remaining viruses reminiscent of jargon used by laboratory virologists but nevertheless different from species names (Reston virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus), and (4) to introduce distinct abbreviations for the individual viruses (RESTV for Reston virus, SUDV for Sudan virus, and TAFV for Tai Forest virus), while retaining that for Marburg virus (MARV) and reintroducing that used over decades for Ebola virus (EBOV). Paying tribute to developments in the field, we propose (a) to create a new ebolavirus species (Bundibugyo ebolavirus) for one member virus (Bundibugyo virus, BDBV); (b) to assign a 2nd virus to the species Marburg marburgvirus (Ravn virus, RAVV) for better reflection of now available high-resolution phylogeny; and (c) to create a new tentative genus (_Cuevavirus_) with one tentative species (_Lloviu cuevavirus_) for the recently discovered Lloviu virus (LLOV). Furthermore, we explain the etymological derivation of individual names, their pronunciation, and their correct use, and we elaborate on demarcation criteria for each taxon and virus."

In future, ProMED-mail will adopt this new terminology wherever applicable.

Readers are recommended to access the Filoviridae chapter in the newly published 9th Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, which also provides a comprehensive account of the biology, properties and phylogeny of filoviruses. - Mod.CP

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1wa6.]

[Shiloh]

Re: Uganda: Ebola Sudan identified in 16 deaths, 165 contacts being monitored, 243 have tested negative

Source: http://www.ugpulse.com/uganda-news/h...ict/26783.aspx

Two suspected Ebola cases reported in Rukungiri district
First published: 20120816 2:38:55 AM EST

Two male patients have been admitted, isolated, and are being screened for the Ebola virus at Kisiizi Hospital in Rukungiri district, south western Uganda. The first patient was admitted on Sunday, August 5 while the second patient was admitted yesterday.

One of the patients is said to have been in Kibaale district three week ago and later on decided to go back to his home in Rukungiri whereupon he fell sick and developed Ebola like symptoms...