KAMPALA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has deployed a health team in the eastern region district of Tororo after a family received a body of relative who died in Ebola-hit eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the ministry of health spokesperson, told Xinhua by telephone on Tuesday that the health teams have already identified the victim and the family and they are being held at a health center in the district.
"The body is going to be buried by our health team after we have obtained all the samples to be taken to Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe to test for Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers," said Ainebyoona.
"The death certificate shows the deceased succumbed to a heart failure and chronic TB (Tuberculosis). But since he was working and staying in eastern DRC, we need to do all the necessary tests to rule out Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers," he said.
The body of the deceased 46-year-old was transported from eastern DRC to the east African country on Monday.
"We are currently doing a search for all family members who got in touch with the body. We are going to vaccinate and quarantine them," said Ainebyoona.
Uganda is on an Ebola alert as parts of neighboring eastern DRC are facing an outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever.
The highly contagious Ebola virus causes a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding, according to the World Health Organization.
Mortality rates of Ebola fever, according to the global health body, are extremely high, with the human case fatality rate ranging from 50 percent to 89 percent, depending on viral subtype.
