The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday warned doctors and other
healthcare workers about an outbreak of Ebola cases in Uganda.
The agency
said although no cases have been reported in the U.S., it was issuing an
advisory through its health alert network to raise awareness.
On January
29, a male nurse working in Uganda's capital, Kampala, died from Ebola caused
by the Sudan virus. Uganda confirmed the
outbreak on January 30.
The alert
issued on Thursday is CDC's first since a temporary
freeze on external communications was enforced by U.S. President
Donald Trump's administration. Previous outbreaks of the Sudan virus have had a
mortality rate of about 50%, the agency said.
The health
alert network is CDC's primary method of sharing cleared information about
urgent public health incidents with information officers, health practitioners,
clinicians, and health laboratories.
Ebola, a
disease primarily affecting humans and nonhuman primates such as monkeys,
chimpanzees, and gorillas, is caused by a group of viruses. It spreads through
direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person or one who has died
from the disease.