Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after man dies of virus
Uganda has confirmed its first death from Ebola virus since 2019, declaring an outbreak in the central Mubende district. The WHO has said six other deaths in the area being investigated.
Ebola is an often deadly viral haemorrhagic fever
Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease, after one person died of the highly contagious virus, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.
Health authorities reported that a man in the central Mubende district, who died on Monday, had tested positive for the virus.
"The confirmed case is a 24-year-old male [...] who presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed," the health ministry said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, using an abbreviation for the disease.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) Africa office said in a statement that the case was of the relatively rare Sudan strain.
"This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain," WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said.
The case was confirmed after six suspicious deaths that have occurred in the district this month were investigated by the National Rapid Response team, the WHO said.
"There are currently eight suspected cases who are receiving care in a health facility," it added.
The global health body said that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their probe and deploying staff to the affected area.
Ebola is easily spread on surfaces — this 2021 image of an outbreak in the
Ivory Coast shows health workers disinfecting a hospital
What is Ebola?
Ebola is an often deadly viral haemorrhagic fever. The virus was first identified in Central Africa in 1976.
It spreads by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms of the disease include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
Uganda has witnessed multiple outbreaks of the Ebola virus with the most recent one in 2019 that left at least five people dead.
The country also shares a porous border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which recorded a new Ebola case last month less than six weeks after an epidemic in its northwest was declared over.
dvv/wmr (AFP, AP, Reuters)
DW RECOMMENDS
NEWS WIRES - An outbreak of Ebola has been declared in Uganda after health authorities confirmed a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain, the health ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after finding rare Sudan strain© Isaac Kasamani, AFP
A 24-year-old man in Uganda's central Mubende district showed symptoms and later died.
"We want to inform the country that we have an outbreak of Ebola which we confirmed yesterday," Diana Atwine, the health ministry's permanent secretary, told a news conference.
She said the patient with the confirmed case had high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and was vomiting blood. He had initially been treated for malaria.
There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility, WHO's Africa office said in a statement, adding that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.
"Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. Thanks to its expertise, action has been taken to quickly to detect the virus and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections," Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa's regional director, said.
The WHO said there had been seven previous outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.
It said Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola Zaire strain in 2019.
The WHO said ring vaccination of high-risk people with the Ervebo vaccine had been highly effective in controlling the spread of Ebola in recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere but that this vaccine had only been approved to protect against the Zaire strain.
Another vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson may be effective but has yet to be specifically tested against the Sudan strain, it added.
(REUTERS)
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