Nine cases of Sudan hemorrhagic fever, a variant of Ebola, have been confirmed in Uganda, AFP reports. Diana Atwine, spokesperson for the country's Ministry of Health, told the agency that all patients had contact with a nurse at the capital's Mulago National Referral Hospital, who became the first registered case and the first victim of the outbreak. A total of 265 contacts (previously 45 were reported) have been identified and placed in isolation for observation in the capital, Kampala, and the eastern city of Mbale.
The current outbreak has prompted the World Health Organization to launch emergency clinical trials of a candidate vaccine against the Sudan virus. Unlike the closely related Zaire virus, no vaccine with proven efficacy currently exists against this pathogen.
