Kabale district has recorded another case of the hemorrhagic Rift Valley Fever barely two months after it was declared free of the epidemic.
Dr Alex Andema, the Kabale regional referral hospital director confirmed that one person was admitted at the hospital after developing signs and symptoms of the deadly fever.
Samples were taken from him and taken to Uganda Virus Laboratory in Entebbe and the results came out positive.
The fever is usually spread though handling of products of infected animals.
“The vast majority of human infections result from direct or indirect contact with the blood or organs of infected domestic animals. The virus can be transmitted to humans through the handling of animal tissue during slaughtering or butchering, assisting with animal births, conducting veterinary procedures, or from the disposal of carcasses or fetuses,” he said.
“There is no doubt the threat is real, we need to see how to put our hands together so that we can fight this epidemic,” Said Dr Andama.
This is the second outbreak of the Rift Valley Fever in Uganda in less than 2 months. The disease was first recorded in Kenya in 1931 and later in the 1990s in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.
Outside Africa, the disease has been reported in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.