Ugandans Slap Quarantine on Ebola Virus Areas

GULU, Uganda (Reuters) - Officials in northern Uganda have placed
three districts at the center of an outbreak of the deadly Ebola
virus under quarantine and say they will use force to prevent
anyone from leaving the area. The World Health Organization says
43 people have died of the virus, one of the most horrific and
deadly known to mankind, since the
outbreak was detected in Uganda two weeks ago.

Ugandan authorities told Reuters Monday that although they
believed the situation was nearly under control, they would

secure three areas where the majority of cases have come from.

Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Ochoro, chairman of a task force
addressing the disease, said all schools in the affected areas --
near the town of Gulu about 270 km (180 miles) north of the
capital Kampala -- had been ordered closed and residents were
told they could not leave except for medical attention.

``We hope we will not have to use force but we are ready to."

With the WHO and aid organizations Monday rushing teams of
doctors and scientists to the area, the situation was fast
beginning to resemble a Hollywood movie, with experts clad in
biologically-secure space suits battling to stop the spread of a
deadly disease in a remote community.

Ebola, which first emerged in what was then Zaire in 1996, is a
haemorrhagic virus that causes patients to bleed to death through
every orifice -- including the eyes and ears.

There is no vaccine and no known cure. It is spread through
contact with an infected person's bodily fluids and can kill
within 48 hours.

One doctor said the symptoms were ``like watching someone
dissolve before your eyes.'' Medical staff in Gulu Monday were
clearly overwhelmed, but even with the best treatment in the
world, Ebola is usually fatal. Some 793 people have died out of
1,100 cases recognized by the WHO since 1996.

FACILITIES STRETCHED AT LOCAL HOSPITAL
Facilities at Gulu hospital near the center of the outbreak zone
were stretched to breaking point.

Eight patients were lying on the floor of the verandah outside a
ward set aside for those already confirmed with Ebola. Although
the ward was supposed to be securely isolated, the building had
no glass in its windows and waste and effluent from the room were
not being kept separate from the rest of the facility.

Inside lay 18 Ebola patients in various stages of the disease.
They were being looked after by staff clad in one-piece paper
body suits, rubber gloves and face masks.

Despite this, staff said they were still terrified of infection.
``We are worried, very worried,'' said nurse Petua Kiboko. ``We
are desperate -- we feel like running away.''

Three nurses from a nearby clinic have died after catching the
virus while treating patients before the identity of the disease
had been discovered. Two others are seriously ill.

Uganda's neighbors have swiftly tried to stem the spread of the
virus, although the WHO said it was not necessary for Uganda to
impose travel restrictions to or from the area.

``Cordoning off an area does not work in situations like this,''
said Mike Ryan, WHO disease outbreak coordinator. ``Travel
restrictions would be inappropriate because the disease is in a
very remote part of Uganda and it spreads with direct contact
with bodily fluids, not by sitting next to an ill person on a
plane.''

But Kenyan health authorities have sent a medical team to Busia,
the main border crossing point between Uganda and Kenya, to try
to identify and isolate suspected Ebola cases. And authorities in
Rwanda and Tanzania have also stepped up checks.

Their task will be made all the more difficult by the fact that
thousands of people cross the border at Busia every day while
suffering from other endemic illnesses such as malaria and
AIDS-related diseases which show similar early symptoms.

Since 1976, Ebola outbreaks have been reported from Gabon, Sudan
and the Ivory Coast, with individual cases of infection reported
in Britain, where a laboratory worker was infected by a
contaminated needle in 1976, and in Liberia.

In the past three months, hundreds of Ugandan soldiers returning
from war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have passed
through Gulu, stirring speculation in the local media that they
may have brought the virus with them. The army says, however,
that it has had no reported cases in its ranks.