“So far, seven cases, including one death, have been confirmed to have contracted Ebola from Sudan,” WHO said in a statement, referring to a rare strain of the virus. “Forty-three contacts have been identified and 10 people suspected of having contracted the virus are receiving treatment at the regional referral hospital in Mubende,” the UN agency said.
“Our experts are already on the ground working with experienced Ugandan Ebola control teams to strengthen surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and preventive measures,” said Abdou Salam Gueye, regional director of emergencies at the WHO Regional Office for Africa. So far, the only death has been reported in the central district of Mubende, about 150 kilometers west of the capital Kampala.
Uganda has a history of Ebola outbreaks, a disease that has killed thousands across Africa since it was first discovered in 1976 in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The last reported cases in the country were in 2019, with at least five deaths, after the “virus was imported from the DRC, which was battling a major outbreak in its northeastern region,” according to the WHO. In a previous outbreak in 2000, 200 people died.
A case of Ebola was also reported in August in the Congolese province of North Kivu, bordering Rwanda and Uganda, less than six weeks after an outbreak in eastern DRC – the 14th in the country’s history – was declared over. Ebola is often fatal, but vaccines and treatments are now available for the hemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted to humans by infected animals.