Uganda declares itself Ebola-free after swiftly turning tide on outbreak
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[January 11, 2023]
By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda on Wednesday declared the end of a nearly
four-month Ebola outbreak that it briefly struggled to contain but was
then able to swiftly bring under control despite the absence of a proven
vaccine against the viral strain in question.
"We have successfully controlled the spread of Ebola in Uganda," Health
Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said during a ceremony to mark the outbreak's
end.
Aceng said this was Uganda's eighth Ebola outbreak since 2000, when the
country recorded its first and most deadly one that killed more than
half of the 425 people it infected.
The latest outbreak killed 55 of the 143 people infected since
September, according to health ministry figures. Six of the fatalities
were health workers.
Wednesday's declaration followed Uganda's completion of 42 days with no
active cases, which represents two full incubation periods of the virus.
In the early weeks of the outbreak, cases spread beyond the epicentre of
Mubende, 150 km (90 miles) west of the capital Kampala, to several other
districts, including Kampala.
The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, praised Uganda for its response to the virus.
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"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," he said in a
statement.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said a two-week delay in declaring
the outbreak after the first probable death from Ebola meant "the
opportunity for immediate quarantine of contacts was lost".
But health officials were able to turn the tide on the disease by
November after imposing a lockdown on affected districts.
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Motorists and cyclists are seen at a
traffic light intersection in Kabuusu area of the Lubaga division
amid the Ebola outbreak in Kampala, Uganda November 16, 2022.
REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/11/images/ads/current/graue_lda_preowned_NEWENCORE2_010923.jpg) Ebola spreads through contact with
the bodily fluids of an infected person and has a fatality rate of
about 50%. More than 11,300 people died during the 2013-2016
outbreak in West Africa.
Unlike the more common strain of the virus, Ebola Zaire, which has
been behind several recent epidemics in neighbouring Democratic
Republic of Congo, the strain behind Uganda's outbreak, Ebola Sudan,
has no proven vaccine.
Even so, experts said Uganda's experience battling previous
outbreaks of Ebola and its viral cousin Marburg helped its response.
Uganda's speed in ultimately containing cases, however, meant
planned trials of vaccine candidates never got off the ground.
In December, Uganda received three vaccines - one by the University
of Oxford and Serum Institute of India, another by the Sabin Vaccine
Institute and a third by Merck - for use vaccinating people in
contact with confirmed cases.
But by that point, there were no new cases. The WHO said experts
would meet on Jan. 12 to discuss the next steps for the vaccines.
Sabin chief executive Amy Finan said preparing for the trials had
nevertheless taught health officials lessons for rolling out a trial
in the future, including how to engage with communities.
"Hopefully we won't have another outbreak soon, but if we do, we'll
be better prepared than ever for it," she told Reuters.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Additional reporting by Aaron
Ross;Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning, Angus
MacSwan and Kim Coghill)
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