Hopes raised by lull in Ebola cases

Uganda has not registered any new positive Ebola cases in nearly three weeks, indicating that the outbreak might be under control.

The viral fever has an incubation period of 21 days, and two of the worst-affected districts remain under a 21-day lockdown extension.

Mubende, the central Uganda district where the first cases of the viral haemorrhagic fever were recorded, has gone 18 days without registering any new cases.

There are currently no patients in hospital, according to the health ministry. The last of them were discharged this week, having fully recovered.

But the case of a stillborn baby, whose mother was an Ebola patient, was recorded on 28 November.

Since an outbreak of the Sudan strain of the Ebola viral fever was first announced in Uganda in September, there have been 142 confirmed cases, with 56 deaths.