(CNN) -- Ugandan authorities did not initially detect an Ebola outbreak because patients weren't showing typical symptoms of the lethal virus, the nation's health minister told CNN Sunday. Patients had fevers and were vomiting, but did not show other typical symptoms like hemorrhaging, Health Minister Dr. Christine Ondoa said.
A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was on the way to Uganda to provide laboratory support to officials dealing with the virus, which health authorities say has left at least 14 people dead in the east African nation this month.
A medic who was treating victims is among the dead, Ondoa said.
Officials are trying to determine the extent of the outbreak, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said Sunday.
About five people from the Atlanta-based centers were expected to join a group of CDC staffers who are permanently based in Uganda, Skinner said.
"These outbreaks have a tendency to sort of stamp themselves out, if you will, if we can get in and sort of stop the chain of transmission," he said.
Ondoa described the Ebola-Sudan strain detected as "mild" compared to other types of Ebola, noting that victims' lives can be saved with intervention.
A total of 20 cases of the virus have been recorded, officials said Saturday.
