GENEVA: A new form of the deadly Ebola virus has been detected in an outbreak in western Uganda that has so far killed 16 people, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Tests conducted by a national lab in Uganda and confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the virus belongs to a different subtype than the four already known, said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.

"We are very concerned about this because it does not present (symptoms) in exactly the same way as other Ebola strains," he said, adding that the new subtype appeared to be associated with vomiting, which does not usually occur in Ebola patients.

Dr. Sam Zaramba, director general of Uganda's health service, had said Thursday that laboratory tests in South Africa and the United States had confirmed 51 Ebola cases, and of those 16 patients died.

The first case was reported on Nov. 10 in Bundibugyo district, 350 kilometers (200 miles) west of the capital, Kampala, Zaramba said.

Ebola typically kills most of those it strikes through massive blood loss, and has no cure or treatment. It is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Word of a new strain "is an important discovery for the scientific community," Pierre Formenty, a WHO expert on hemorrhagic fevers, told The Associated Press.

Improved disease surveillance was bound to turn up new forms of Ebola, he said, and "different subtypes cause different types of disease."

"This could be a milder strain of the disease, but we still need additional information to confirm that," Formenty said.

The three main subtypes usually kill 50 to 90 percent of infected patients. A fourth subtype, Reston, does not cause any symptoms and is not fatal.

Hartl said the outbreak in Uganda was not currently being linked to cases elsewhere. The outbreak in Uganda occurred close to the country's western border with Congo, where WHO and local officials said last week that an Ebola outbreak there that killed six people had been contained.

Prior to this, the last outbreak of Ebola in Uganda occurred in October 2000 when 173 people died and a total of 426 people were diagnosed in the north of the country.

The World Health Organization says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and Congo. Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can carry the virus.

A new mutation of the existing or a previously unknown form that was already endemic in nature?  Don't know, and don't know that we'll EVER know the answer to that, but it's interesting, nonetheless.  They need epidemiological support and I wish I were there to provide it.  What a horrific disease. . .it means almost certain death to those who contract it.  I know there are other health conditions and diseases that are more prevalent, and those that are preventable. . . .but no one should have to die in this manner!

 

 

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