KAMPALA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) office here has ruled out an outbreak of smallpox in eastern Uganda after suspected cases were reported.
Joaquim Saweka, WHO country representative, told Xinhua by telephone on Thursday that preliminary investigations show that the suspected cases may turn out to be chickenpox, which is common in the East African country.
"It is not smallpox, most likely it is chickenpox and these are isolated cases without linkage. It is not an outbreak," he said.
He said a WHO team is already in the area and will issue a detailed report later.
The suspected cases were detected three or four weeks ago, according to him.
The Daily Monitor, a local newspaper, reported on Thursday that four children in Internally Displaced People's camps in Bududa district were suspected cases.
Smallpox is an acute contagious disease caused by variola virus. It was one of the world's most feared diseases until it was eradicated by a collaborative global vaccination program led by WHO
The statistics from WHO show that the last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. Since then, the only known cases were caused by a laboratory accident in 1978 in Birmingham, England, which killed one person and caused a limited outbreak.
The disease was officially declared eradicated in 1979.
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