Uganda is expected to announce an end to the Ebola outbreak on Wednesday if no cases are declared by then, the health ministry said on Monday.
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Since authorities declared an Ebola outbreak on Sept. 20, the East African country has recorded 142 confirmed cases and 56 deaths. This disease has reappeared in central Uganda, with a first case from a so-called “Sudanese” strain.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an epidemic is said to be over when there are no new cases for 42 consecutive days, which is double the incubation period of Ebola.
The declaration of the end of Ebola “will take place on Wednesday in the Mubende district”, in the center of the country, where the epidemic started, said the spokesman of the Ministry of Health Emmanuel Ainebyoona.
The last confirmed patient with the virus was discharged from hospital on Nov. 30, health authorities said.
There is currently no vaccine against the “Sudanese” strain of the virus. But three experimental vaccines, one developed by the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute in Great Britain, another by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in the United States and a third by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), are currently being tested in Uganda after first deliveries in December.
Ebola is an often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever. The disease is named after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where it was discovered in 1976.
Uganda, an East African country, has had six outbreaks of Ebola, the latest of which was in 2019. Four of these were caused by the so-called Sudanese strain.
Human transmission occurs through body fluids, the main symptoms of which are fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea.
