South Sudan Ebola strain
On Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Uganda.
The ministry said one person had died of the virus in Madudu sub-county, Mubende district.
The deceased is a 24 year old man who succumbed to the deadly virus on Monday morning at the Mubende Regional Referral Hospital where he had been isolated after presenting symptoms.
The Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Diana Atwine says the deceased first presented with Viral Hemorrhagic Fever at St John’s Medical clinic, in East Division of Mubende Municipality on September 15, but was referred to Mubende hospital after his condition deteriorated.
According to Dr. Atwine, the deceased presented with fever, convulsions, blood-stained vomits, diarrhea, loss of appetite, pain swallowing, chest pain, dry cough and bleeding in the eyes. He later developed yellow of eyes, tea colored urine and complained of abdominal pain.
Atwine says in a statement that samples were collected on suspicion of VHF and taken to the Uganda Virus Institute on September 18, 2022 but returned positive for the Ebola virus (South Sudanese strain) on September 19.
South Sudan Ebola strain
The deceased is the index case of the virus and his lifeless body remains at Mubende referral hospital, despite pressure from close relatives, family and friends, awaiting a decent send off.
However, facts around the South Sudan Ebola strain are creating spines of fear in the public.
According to the MOH, this is the second time that the same Ebola strain has been reported in Uganda. The first case was registered in Luwero during the 2012 outbreak. This was diagnosed and ended on the index case.
Atwine says the South Sudan strain takes between two to twenty one days to incubate in one’s body and that it is a serious disease with significant morbidity and mortality. Like all other strains, Ebola virus can be fatal if left untreated.
The disease spreads through close contact with broken skin or mucus membranes of an infected person or deceased or even objects that have been contaminated with bodily fluids like feaces, blood, or vomit from a sick or deceased.
It also spreads through blood, secretions, organs , bodily fluids of infected animals such as fruit bats, chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys (dead or alive).
The Ministry of Health has confirmed that six persons including three adults and children have died from Ebola related symptoms in two sub-counties of Kiruma and Madudu between September 01-15, 2022. District Rapid response teams have been deployed to investigate and trace the origin of the virus.
The World Health Organisation says 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.
South Sudan Ebola strain
