Uganda hepatitis epidemic toll rises to 110

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

KAMPALA (AFP) — A hepatitis E epidemic in northern Uganda has killed 110 people since last October and continues to spread across the region, the health ministry said Thursday.

The virus, concentrated in the Kitgum district which is home to numerous camps for civil-war displaced, has caused 6,762 infections, with 232 new cases reported last week alone.

"The biggest problem has been personal hygiene, which is far below standards," said Joseph Wamara, an epidemiologist with the health ministry. "Many of these people have been confined to camps for years."

Northern Uganda is barely emerging from two decades of civil war and its tens of thousands of displaced inhabitants still living in camps are particularly vulnerable.

Since a fragile truce brought an...