Two more people have died of the deadly Ebola virus in an outbreak in the Uganda's southwestern district of Bundibugyo, bringing the death toll to 18.

Sam Okware, the commissioner for Health Services, said over telephone on Monday that in one week, with six more new cases recorded, the number of infections had risen to 58.

"We have had two more deaths in the last 24 hours, and the disease continues to spread. The six people were infected from a burial. This is because some people have not avoided crowds. We have restricted people from shaking hands when greeting and should avoid congestion in taxis," Sam Zaramba, the director general of health services, was quoted by the Daily Monitor newspaper on Monday as saying.

"The main challenge we are facing is detecting cases and following up who among those made contact with the patients," Zaramba said.

The Ugandan government last week dispatched a team of health officials from the Ministry of Health headquarters in Kampala, with over 10 other international health experts, to reinforce rapid response capability in the troubled district.

Zaramba said that the government has so far created two isolation centers one in Bundibugyo Hospital and the other at Kikyo Health Centre with at least seven trained staff at each.

"We advise people to instantly report Ebola cases for early treatment and people should not be close to each other. We have not gotten any new case at Kikyo.

All the six have come from Bundibugyo only," he said.  

It has emerged that the Ebola outbreak in the district has created a state of panic in the larger part of western Uganda.

This has consequently paralyzed businesses and social activities  in the neighbouring districts of Kasese, Fort Portal, and Kabarole  as residents choose to confine themselves to their homes. 

Zaramba advised people to bury the dead immediately, avoid feasting at funerals, and keep funeral services short.

The ministry of health last Thursday confirmed that the " strange" disease that hit parts of Bundibugyo district since August as Ebola.

The disease is characterized by very high fever, diarrhoea, vomiting associated with red eyes and a measles-like rash.

It is spread by close contact with the body fluids of infected persons or people who have died of it.
Ebola is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to mankind, causing death in 50 to 90 percent of all clinically ill cases.

The Ebola virus was first identified in a western equatorial province of Sudan and in a nearby region of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976 after significant epidemics in Yambuku, northern Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nzara, southern Sudan. 

According to World Health Organization, Ebola strain identified in western Uganda is "completely different" from the four known sub types of the hoemomorrhagic fever namely, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Reston (that only affects monkeys) and Ebola Tai (Ivory Coast).

The last outbreak of Ebola in Uganda killed 224 people from October 2000 to March 2001.

The outbreak had started in the northern part of the country spread to several other areas of the country.

An outbreak in neighboring Congo this year infected up to 264 people, killing 187.