Ebola Claims 2 New Victims in Uganda

Doctors work in a laboratory on collected samples of the Ebola virus at the Center for Disease Control in Entebbe, southwest of Kampala, August 2, 2012.

Health authorities in Uganda said the Ebola virus has claimed the lives of two people, just over a month after the World Health Organization said the country's Ebola outbreak was over.

Ugandan Health Minister Christine Ondoa told reporters Thursday that two people in the same family died of the disease in Luwero district, about 50 kilometers from the capital, Kampala.

She said the Uganda Virus Research Institute had confirmed the findings and added that five more people suspected of coming into contact with the victims are being closely monitored.

Video footage from a Ugandan hospital showed people lying in bed, obviously ill. The virus, which is spread by bodily fluids, causes fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and in some cases, bleeding.

The World Health Organization early last month declared an end to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda that took 17 lives. As of the end of October, the WHO said an outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo has stabilized, after at least 25 fatal cases.