The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked U.S. physicians to be on the lookout for cases of the deadly disease.
In Uganda, there were 44 confirmed cases and 10 deaths, with a few dozen possible cases and 20 deaths still under investigation, making this the largest outbreak in 20 years. There were deaths and infections among health care workers.
American doctors are being warned as a precautionary because no cases have been reported outside Uganda. There are no approved drugs for the type of disease causing the outbreak in Uganda.
The agency told doctors to get a travel history from patients who are suspected of having the disease.
Travelers from or passing through Uganda can enter the United States on flights from other countries, even though there are no direct flights from Uganda to the United States.
Most of the time the disease is found in sub-Saharan Africa. Mild respiratory symptoms can be a sign of an infectious disease.
Dramatic symptoms such as bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth and rectum have made patients afraid of the virus. Half of the people who are killed by the disease are killed within two weeks of the appearance of symptoms.
The C.D.C. and the World Health Organization give information on how to diagnose and treat patients with the virus.
The outbreak was first detected in Uganda and has since spread to four other districts. The W.H.O. regional office for Africa says there will be many more cases and deaths before the virus can be contained.
Dr. Braka said that they are worried because they haven't reached the peak.
After the first patient was diagnosed, only three-quarters of the people who may have been exposed were able to be traced.
There is a chance that cases will grow in other parts of the country or the world because the remaining contacts have dispersed.
Previous epidemics have spiraled out of control because of the high rate of transmission of the disease. More cases were accounted for by the largest tore through West Africa. The W.H.O. reported over 30,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths.
Nine Americans contracted the disease outside of the U.S. Two of them passed away.
The World Health Organization has twice declared a public health emergency of international concern, the organization's highest alert, in the past, when the virus surfaced in the Democratic Republic of theCongo.
The primary source of previous epidemics was the Zaire species. They are not effective against the Sudan species.
Scientists have been working on vaccine candidates for the Sudan species.
The Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health has a license to develop a single-dose vaccine.
The vaccine has been shown to be very protective against the Sudan virus in monkeys. There are a lot of doses available.
A vaccine candidate made by a British team is in early stage trials. There are 81 doses left.
The candidates could be used in clinical trials if Ugandan health authorities approve them.
There is enough bulk material to make 40,000 doses of the vaccine. It will take at least until the end of the year to fill and finish those doses.
The initial response to the U.S. outbreak of monkeypox was hampered by difficulties in obtaining the vaccine. There is a vaccine shortage around the world.
There are two rapid succession cases where a better solution is needed.
A shortage of vaccine filling and finishing facilities creates a problem when needed. Emergency stocks need to be constantlyReplenished due to the fact that finished doses expire more quickly.
Two months ago, Dr. Koup would have predicted that finishing the vaccine would not be a problem. He thought we should have had a few thousand doses filled.
Federal scientists were praised by activists for having foresight to develop vaccines. The government should own and control a vaccine manufacturing facility that can be used during an outbreak, according to a founder of the group.
There is a lack of vaccine manufacturing capacity in the US, so we have to watch for an outbreak. Mr. Krellenstein spoke. This is a problem that can be fixed.
Scientists are trying to develop a vaccine that can reverse symptoms of the disease. One dose of an anti-Ebola cocktail has been shown to ease the symptoms of monkeys that have been exposed to the disease. The treatment is in early stages.
Kartik Chandran, a virologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York who helped develop the treatment, said that if you go fishing for the rare rainbow unicorn antibodies, you can find them.
He said that it was only a matter of time before there was another outbreak that wasn't caused by the disease.
The response to the outbreak in Uganda was quickly scaled up. The number of village health officials trained to watch for symptoms has increased. Dr. Braka said they have been given protective equipment.
She said that officials moved testing to a mobile lab in Mubende, the epicenter of the outbreak. Confirmation of the diagnosis takes less than an hour.
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