A blood sample of a suspected Ebola patient has been sent to Mulago National Referral Hospital, in Uganda’s capital Kampala.

The sample has been taken from a woman from Adjumani in West Nile, currently isolated St Mary’s Hospital Lacor.

The woman had been transferred from Adjumani hospital on May 31 after showing signing suspected to be caused by the Ebola virus, Lacor hospital authorities say.

Lacor Hospital medics handling the suspect’s case insist it could be a gynaecological case.

Last month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed an Ebola outbreak in the north east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the number of cases has since hit 29 as May 18.

West Nile borders with DR Congo and this raises fears that locals could easily contract the deadly virus from Uganda’s neighbour.

Some 17 years ago in 2000, an Ebola outbreak claimed over 200 lives. Even the Lacor hospital director, Dr Matthew Lukwiya, died of the virus – and it is at the same hospital that a suspected case is being isolated.

PHOTO: Medical workers treating a patient suspected of having Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007. PHOTO/COURTESY