Three years after the last death caused by Ebola disease, Ugandan authorities and the WHO announced Tuesday that they had detected an outbreak of the virus in the country, with the first recorded death and eight suspected cases.
The death was recorded in the district of Mubende, in the center of the country, about 150 kilometers west of the capital Kampala. It hit a 24-year-old man, Uganda’s health ministry said. “There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility,” WHO Africa added in a statement.
The announcement follows an investigation by the National Rapid Response Team into six suspicious deaths in the Mubende district in September. The deceased’s case comes from a “relatively rare” strain, known as Sudanese, which had not been reported in Uganda since 2012, the WHO said, indicating it was deploying “a team and equipment to aid in the investigation and response” .
Vaccination campaign launched
Uganda has already experienced outbreaks of Ebola, a disease that has claimed thousands of lives across Africa since its discovery in 1976 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The last cases recorded in the country date back to 2019, with at least five deaths. In a previous outbreak in 2000, 200 people died.
Underlining its “exceptional experience in managing outbreaks and epidemics of this nature”, the Ministry of Health announced that it will strengthen its “surveillance and awareness” operations in the Mubende district and called on the population “to remain alert and calm” . Authorities have also started vaccinating frontline workers (health workers, security personnel, immigration and customs officials) in the DRC border areas.
“We have distributed 12,000 doses of the vaccine and expect 10,000 additional doses this month to control a possible spread of Ebola in the country,” said Minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero.
afp / vic
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