Uganda on Wednesday, January 11, declared the end of the Ebola disease outbreak caused by Sudan ebolavirus, less than four months after the first case was confirmed in the country’s central Mubende district, on September 20, 2022.
As noted, the country’s ministry of health hasn’t recorded any new Ebola cases since November 30, 2022.
"Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection, prevention and control,” said Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, Uganda’s Minister of Health.
Since September 20, Health authorities have recorded 164 cases, 55 confirmed deaths and 87 recovered patients.
It was the country’s first outbreak caused by the Sudan strain in a decade and its fifth overall for this kind of Ebola.
According to the World Health Organisation, the case-fatality ratio was 47%.
The last patient was released from care on November 30, when the 42-day countdown to the end of the outbreak began.
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"While we expanded our efforts to put a strong response in place across the nine affected districts, the magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak, and took action,” Dr Ocero said.
The Sudan ebolavirus strain is one of six species of the Ebola virus against which no therapeutics and vaccines have been approved yet.
The WHO said the outbreak was one of the most challenging in the past five years.
"I congratulate Uganda for its robust and comprehensive response which has resulted in today’s victory over Ebola,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General.
"Uganda has shown that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together, from having an alert system in place, to finding and caring for people affected and their contacts, to gaining the full participation of affected communities in the response.”
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The WHO encouraged neighbouring countries to remain on alert. The organization provided nearly $6.5 million to Uganda’s response and an additional $3 million to support readiness in six neighbouring countries.
Since December 8, Uganda has received 5,000 doses of Ebola vaccine candidates. Although not deployed during the latest outbreak, the WHO said, they will contribute to the efforts to respond to future outbreaks.
"The next time the Sudan ebolavirus strikes we can reignite the robust cooperation between developers, donors and health authorities and dispatch the candidate vaccines,” said Dr Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, WHO Representative in Uganda.