The Ebola virus has hit again. The outbreak appears to be in the western part of Uganda. The landlocked country in Africa is neighbored by Kenya, Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Based on laboratory tests from South Africa and the United States, 51 cases of Ebola were discovered. So far, 16 deaths have been reported, but there is no cure and the virus kills the majority of those it infects.

The virus is usually spread through contact with infected blood. The cause of this outbreak has not been identified. Officials are investigating this case and are trying to determine everyone that may have come into contact with the 51 victims. Unfortunately, the first victim was discovered on November 10th, which means the severity of the situation was not immediately realized. Also, the incubation period of the virus ranges from 2 to 21 days. This could mean that they must track all contacts within the past month. There is now an isolation facility set up in the western part of Uganda that borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The virus has not been contained. Though, they are isolating the victims as quickly as possible, but there could easily be more people in the small villages that have not surfaced.

The positive note is that this strain of the virus appears to be less severe as previous cases. The virus normally causes severe blood loss, killing most of its victims. This blood loss has not been as bad as previous cases. This strain of Ebola has taken most of its victims by fever rather than bleeding to death.

The last time the virus hit Uganda was in October of 2000. In this case, there were 173 deaths and over 400 people infected. The Ebola virus has taken more than 1,000 lives since it was first identified in 1976. Previous cases have been linked to animals and primates in the region. Infected animals can pass the virus to local hunters. The problem is that the actual source is still unknown. The reservoir species, or carrier, is a species that is not affected by the virus and only passes it to others.

The movie Outbreak was based on a virus similar to Ebola. In the movie the carrier was a monkey. However, experts have hypothesized that they likely carrier may be the fruit bat. This is yet to be proven since there has never been a confirmation of any species that has carried the virus without being affected.