By
The Associated Press
KAMPALA, Uganda - Health officials trying to contain an outbreak of Ebola said yesterday that a group of people from neighboring Kenya may have come into contact with the deadly virus at funerals in Uganda.
The seven Kenyans were among 150 people Ugandan authorities believe may have come into contact with Ebola at funerals for three victims of the disease in central Uganda, said Dr. Samuel Okware, head of Uganda's task force on Ebola.
Health officials are trying to track the outbreak, which has killed 110 people in Uganda since it was first identified in mid-October.
The Kenyan Health Ministry said it was notified Monday about the seven, and that they had been traced and quarantined in their homes. They have shown no signs of Ebola, but will be monitored for 42 days before they are declared free of infection, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
The statement also said that more than 20,000 people crossing the Kenyan-Ugandan border have been screened since the Ebola outbreak was and no cases of the virus have been found.
The 150 were people who attended the burials in Masindi Port of three recent Ebola victims - all relatives. The husband of one of the three, who was also from Masindi, later died of Ebola as well and was buried in the cemetery of the hospital, in Kiryandongo, 133 miles north of Kampala, to prevent further spreading of the virus.
In many parts of Uganda, it is customary to wash the body of the deceased. Afterward, mourners dip their hands in the washing water as a sign of solidarity and shake hands with other mourners.
When the outbreak was first reported, officials tried to contain the virus to the northern town of Gulu, but on Nov. 2, they confirmed that a soldier had died of the disease in Mbarara, 175 miles southwest of Kampala. His death was followed by three others in the same town.
Then this week health officials announced that a woman who died in Masindi Port had fled there from Gulu, 99 miles to the north, afraid she had contracted the virus. That carried Ebola to a third point in this East African nation.
Experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders as well as health ministry officials were investigating whether the disease had spread to other points.
The fever caused by the Ebola virus is transmitted through body fluids. The disease can cause severe hemorrhagic fever and is often fatal.
Ebola's early symptoms are similar to the flu, which has led to many false reports. No one knows where the virus exists between outbreaks or where the disease originated.
Health Ministry officials said Monday that 323 cases of Ebola have been recorded and that 191 people have recovered.
There is no cure for Ebola, but patients aggressively treated with reverse dehydration have a good chance of survival.
