As neighboring DR Congo faces a new Ebola outbreak, Uganda’s Ministry of Health has confirmed that effective measures are in place to block cross-border transmission of the deadly virus.
The new outbreak, which has so far killed 15 people, was reported in mid-August in Kasai Province, located about 2000 kilometers from Kampala by road. Uganda and DR Congo have cross-border trade activities, which increase the risk of cross-border spread.
Dr Charles Olaro, the Director General of Health Services at the health ministry, in an interview with our reporter on Monday, said Uganda has all it takes to prevent the disease from attacking its citizens.
Declared the end of the Ebola disease outbreak in April, which was Uganda’s second Ebola outbreak in less than three years.
During this outbreak, 14 cases, 12 confirmed and two not confirmed through laboratory tests, were reported. Four deaths, two confirmed and two probable, occurred. Ten people recovered from the infection, and a total of 534 people were identified as having been in contact with the confirmed and probable cases and were closely monitored.
DR Congo’s last outbreak of Ebola virus disease affected the north-western Equateur province in April 2022. In Kasai province, previous outbreaks of Ebola virus disease were reported in 2007 and 2008. In the country overall, there have been 15 outbreaks, and this new one is the 16th.
Dr Allan Muruta, the commissioner in charge of Epidemiology Surveillance and Public Health Emergencies at the Health Ministry, said they are monitoring individuals who come in and go out of the country through their movements so as to find out any signs of the disease.
Dr Mohamed Janabi, the Regional Director for Africa at the World Health Organization (WHO), in a Sunday statement, said equipment and supplies have been sent to the DRC to help prevent the disease from spreading.
As of yesterday, an initial 400 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine from the country’s stockpile of 2000 doses were prepositioned in the capital Kinshasa, with vaccination starting with frontline workers in the Bulape health zone where the outbreak was declared, according to the WHO.
The vaccine is being administered through a ring vaccination strategy, which entails vaccinating individuals at the highest risk of infection after having come into contact with a patient confirmed with the virus.
The International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision has approved around 45,000 additional Ebola vaccine doses to be shipped to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of the ongoing outbreak response.
In addition to the vaccines, treatment courses of the monoclonal antibody therapy (Mab114) drug have also been sent to treatment centers in Bulape for clinical care.
Ebola virus disease is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans. It is transmitted to people through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as fruit bats.
Human-to-human transmission is through direct contact with blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died from Ebola, objects that have been contaminated with body fluids from a person sick with Ebola, or the body of a person who died from Ebola.
