Uganda has confirmed seven cases of Ebola including that of a 24-year-old man who died earlier this week and an additional seven deaths are being investigated as suspected cases of Ebola, a health ministry official says on Thursday.
The man who died had developed a high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains, and was vomiting blood. After initially being treated for malaria, he was diagnosed as having contracted the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus.
“As of today, we have seven confirmed cases, of which we have one confirmed death. But also we have seven probable cases that died before the confirmation of the outbreak,” explains Dr Kyobe Henry Bbosa Ebola Incident Commander at the Ugandan Ministry of Health. ”
Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012. In 2019 the country experienced an outbreak of Ebola Zaire. The virus was imported from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo which was battling a large epidemic in its northeastern region.
In August, a new case of Ebola virus was confirmed in the city of Beni in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. An Ebola vaccination campaign was launched last month in the Congolese city of Beni last month.
DRC probes suspected new Ebola case in the eastern province of North Kivu
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.
