Uganda Now Ebola-Free

Uganda has been declared Ebola-free after successfully completing a 42-day countdown to the end of the outbreak.

The declaration was made by the country’s Health Minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero.

The East African country recorded 164 cases (142 confirmed and 22 probable), 55 confirmed deaths and 87 recoveries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

The Organisation says more than 4000 people who came in contact with confirmed cases were followed up and their health monitored for 21 days.

The last patient was released on November 30.

The country was declared Ebola-free in accordance with guidelines of the WHO which states that a country shall be declared free of any pandemic 42 days following the negative PCR test result, at a time for declaration of the outbreak is over in the absence of new cases supported by evidence of active surveillance of MVD.

The Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, congratulated the country for the feat.

“I congratulate Uganda for its robust and comprehensive response which has resulted in today’s victory over Ebola”, he is quoted to have said.

“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. Lessons learned and the systems put in place for this outbreak will protect Ugandans and others in the years ahead.”

The first case was confirmed in the central Mubende district on September 20, 2022.

According to the WHO, the outbreak was caused by the Sudan ebolavirus, one of six species of the Ebola virus against which no therapeutics and vaccines have been approved yet.

However, Uganda’s long experience in responding to epidemics allowed the country to rapidly strengthen critical areas of the response and overcome the lack of these key tools.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini