A 5-YEAR-OLD boy who tested positive for Ebola in Uganda has died, a health ministry official told reporters yesterday as two of his family members also tested positive for the virus after a visit to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The World Health Organization confirmed on Twitter that Uganda has now recorded three cases of Ebola, in the first spread across the country’s porous western border with the DRC where more than 2,000 cases of the highly contagious virus have been registered.

Uganda’s health ministry said Tuesday that a woman of Congolese origin, who is married to a Ugandan, had gone with her child and four other family members to take care of her father in the DRC, who later died of Ebola.

“The boy who tested positive for Ebola in Kasese yesterday passed on last night in the isolation unit,” a health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

“The minister for health Ruth Aceng will be briefing the country about the death of the boy and arrangements to bury the body.”

The official said the child was likely to be buried soon.

DRC Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said the family were placed in isolation after being identified as in contact with an Ebola patient.

“During the isolation, some family members crossed into Uganda. As soon as they crossed, we contacted the Ugandan authorities,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Uganda’s health ministry said the family members had been identified and were placed in isolation in Bwera, a town near the border with DRC.

“Two more samples were sent to UVRI (Uganda Virus Research Institute) and have tested positive. We, therefore, have three confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda,” the WHO Uganda posted on its Twitter account, citing a briefing from Ugandan Health Minister Ruth Aceng in Kasese in the country’s west.

Eight other people in contact with the family had been tracked down and were being monitored, the health ministry said.

East Africa has been on high alert since the outbreak in the eastern DRC.

According to the WHO, Uganda vaccinated nearly 4,700 health workers in 165 facilities with an experimental drug designed to protect them against the virus.

South Sudan has also declared a state of alert and vaccinated health workers. (SD-Agencies)