Uganda: On Tuesday, the Ugandan Ministry of Health recorded the first death in the country as a result of infection with the highly contagious Ebola virus since 2019, declaring the outbreak of the disease in the central region of Mubende.
Diana Atwine, the health ministry, added that the victim was suffering from a high temperature, diarrhoea and abdominal pain and was vomiting blood. He had initially received treatment for malaria.
“The case is confirmed for a 24-year-old man who showed symptoms of Ebola virus disease and later died,” the ministry said on Twitter, using the acronym for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
For its part, the World Health Organization said in a statement issued earlier on Tuesday that a 24-year-old man in Mubende had tested positive for the “relatively rare strain of Sudan” of the virus.
There are a total of eight cases taking treatment in a health facility; the WHO’s Africa office gave a statement that they are helping Uganda 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 catch the virus, and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections,” Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Africa’s regional director, said.
Uganda has stellar experience in handling outbreaks and epidemics of this nature. The @MinofHealthUG has dispatched teams to Mubende District to enhance surveillance and community awareness. The public is urged to remain vigilant and calm as teams undertake the necessary action. https://t.co/HIN5mU1kvj
— Ministry of Health- Uganda (@MinofHealthUG) September 20, 2022
As per the WHO, there had been seven previous outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.
Last, Uganda reported the case of Ebola in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola strain in 2019.
It is stated that ring vaccination of high-risk people with the Ervebo vaccine had been highly effective in controlling the spread of Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and elsewhere, but that this vaccine had only been approved to protect against the Zaire strain.