One hundred ninety eight of the 410 suspected Ebola contacts in Kibaale district have been declared free of the hemorrhagic virus and reunited with family and community members.
Dr Dan Kyamanywa, the Kibaale district Health Officer, says the contacts were declared Ebola free after 21 days elapsed without them showing the disease signs and symptoms.
According to the health officer, the Ebola incubation period is 21 days and any person believed to have contracted the virus is monitored for that period.
He says none of the 198 people has presented the Ebola symptoms thus declaring them Ebola free and allowing them to interact freely with other community members.
The contact persons include medical personnel that treated some of the Ebola patients at Kagadi Hospital, and relatives and friends of the victims. They have since been placed under home confinement and closely monitored.
But despite the Ebola contacts being cleared and reunited with their family and community members, some are still facing isolation from community members.
In the neighboring Hoima district, Julius Kyeyune of Kitoole in Buhimba Sub County says ever since he returned home, some family members have continued to run away from him. Kyeyune says this has affected his business performance at Kitoole trading centre as customers cannot step in his shop anymore. Kyeyune claims that at times community members have attempted to beat him accusing him of trying to spread the disease after he attended a burial of the Ebola victim in Kibaale district recently.
Meanwhile 22 Ebola patients are still at Kagadi hospital, with two of them admitted on Wednesday. Three of the patients are Ebola positive but one of them has been treated and is improving. Thirteen are Ebola negative and are due for discharge. The rest have had their samples taken for confirmation.
Despite new admissions on Wednesday, Dr Kyamanywa says the outbreak is almost getting contained basing on the reduction in the disease attack rate.
Kyamanywa says cumulatively a total of 60 cases were registered since the disease outbreak in Kibaale a month ago. Sixteen of them died on treatment while 3 died in the community.
The affected Sub Counties are Nyamarundu, Kagadi, Bwamiramira and Mpeefu.
