Fear has gripped residents of Kitanyata 2 Village in Kiruli Sub-county, Masindi District after one of their own died presenting Ebola like symptoms.
Moses Abigaba 28, died on Friday at Masindi Hospital where he had been admitted the previous day bleeding through the mouth, nose and other body openings.
Mr Patrick Baguma, the acting District Health Officer (DHO), told Kazi-njema News that Abigaba was admitted to the hospital on Thursday with symptoms similar to those of dangerous diseases like Ebola and Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).
The DHO added that later, the patient died but his relatives took away his body from the hospital without the knowledge of the administration.
This forced the hospital authorities to dispatch a team of health experts to go and bury the body as a precautionary measure as the facility administrators wait for the results from the samples that would be sent to the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI).
Mr Baguma fears that the man could have died of a dangerous disease as the area is near Murchison Falls National Game Park where wild animals that transmit it live.
Mr Richard Businge, the Kitanyata 2 village chairman, says that Abigaba developed the sickness three days before until Thursday when it worsened and was admitted to a local clinic.
However, he was referred to Masindi main hospital where he died on Friday.
Mr Businge added that relatives of the deceased later took the body to the village the same day but they were shocked when a team of health workers dressed in protective gear stormed the burial and ordered all the mourners to disperse before checking the body and later buried it themselves.
