The outbreak began almost a month ago in a village in western Uganda, but medical workers initially failed to diagnose the illness because it did not present typical symptoms.
Stephen Byaruhanga, health secretary of the Kibaale district, first hit by the disease, said cases of Ebola, at first concentrated in a single village, are now being reported across the region.
“It’s no longer just one village. There are many villages affected,†he said.
Barnabas Tinkasimire, a lawmaker from the region, accused Uganda’s central government of being too slow to react to the outbreak.
“It took long for the government to respond, and up to now many people don’t know how to guard against Ebola,†he said.
During the first three weeks of cases, people began fleeing their villages as more and more people died, and those who had come into contact with earlier victims then also caught the virus.
One family lost nine members, and a clinical officer and her 4-month-old baby also died.
Officials from Uganda’s health ministry only confirmed that the disease was Ebola at the weekend, by which point it had reached the capital.
This is the fourth occurrence of Ebola in Uganda since 2000, when the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatised in northern Uganda.
At least 42 people were killed in another outbreak in 2007, and there was a lone Ebola case in 2011.
Ebola was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognised.
Ebola is one of the most feared infectious diseases in the world and there is no specific treatment or vaccine. But despite being extremely virulent the disease is containable because it kills its victims faster than it can spread to new ones.
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