Uganda Ebola free
Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng on Wednesday morning pronounced Uganda free from Ebola Virus Disease to a cheerful crowd in central District of Mubende.
Amidst cheers, claps and ululations of liberty, locals and various government officials present at the ceremony, Aceng said the declaration was premised on the fact that Uganda has gone 42 days without any admission or infections.
She stated that in both Kasanda and Mubende, the epicenter districts, the last patient was released on November 30, 2023.
“We have successfully controlled the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, I now confirm that all transmission chains have been fully interrupted and I take this opportunity to declare that the outbreak is over and Uganda is now free of active Ebola,” Aceng said.
Uganda Ebola free
The World Health Organization (WHO) boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Uganda successfully put up a fight and managed the widely-feared haemorrhagic fever.
Under the WHO’s criteria, an outbreak of the disease officially ends when there are no new cases for 42 consecutive days — twice the virus’s incubation period.
The outbreak had spread to nine districts, including the capital, Kampala. It was the worst Ebola outbreak in Uganda in more than two decades, and the second-deadliest in the country’s history, with 142 confirmed cases and 55 deaths, and an additional 22 deaths also linked to the outbreak
Two districts at the epicentre of the epidemic, Mubende and Kassanda, were placed under lock-down for two months until mid-December, but the government did not impose similar measures nationwide.
However, some health workers in Mubende are still distressed over non-payment of their work allowances for working in the Ebola Treatment Centres. Hygienists in Mubende district claim that they have never been given contracts since they were recruited as emergency employees in October last year.
“Even if everything is closing today, we have information that some health workers mostly hygenists , sweeping , cleaning in Kassanda and Mubende Regional Refferal Hospital have not been paid salaries for November and December to date. We need clarification from the RDC because these people are not working on contracts,” a local leader in Mubende told our reporter Rashidah Nakaayi.
Meanwhile, excited locals in Mubende told our reporter Rashidah Nakaayi, that the declaration has brought relief to them because the disease affected household incomes, businesses and education.
The first case reported on Sept. 20, was confirmed at a hospital in the Mubende district.
The patient, a 24-year-old male, had developed symptoms including high fever, chest pain and convulsions, along with bleeding in the eyes. He had visited multiple health facilities before he was finally isolated and tested for the virus. He died on Sept. 19.
Uganda has suffered multiple Ebola outbreaks in the past. The worst was in 2000, killing 224 people, according to the W.H.O.
