Doctor buried as Uganda despairs

Kampala - Uganda was plunged into mourning yesterday as the doctor who had led the country's two-month battle against the Ebola…

Kampala - Uganda was plunged into mourning yesterday as the doctor who had led the country's two-month battle against the Ebola epidemic was buried hours after he died from the virus.

Dr Matthew Lukwiya, the medical superintendent at St Mary's Hospital in Lacor, died despite round-the-clock efforts by doctors to save him.

"We lost one of our gallant sons of the country, who has been spearheading the fight against Ebola," the assistant commissioner for disease control said.

"People are devastated," the director for health services in Gulu district said. The WHO representative in Uganda said: "If there was ever a good doctor, he was one." The outbreak, which began in September, has claimed 156 lives so far.