• “I congratulate Uganda for its robust and comprehensive response which has resulted in today’s victory over Ebola,” Dr Tedros said.
• This was after the country announced an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that began about four months ago.
The World Health Organisation on Wednesday declared Uganda Ebola Free.
This was after the country announced an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that began about four months ago.
The last patient was released from care on November 30, 2022 when the 42-day countdown to the end of the virus began. It ended on Tuesday.
“Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection, prevention and control.
"While we expanded our efforts to put a strong response in place across the nine affected districts, the magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak, and took action,” Uganda’s Minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Acero said.
WHO director general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said Uganda had shown that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together, from having an alert system in place, to finding and caring for people affected and their contacts, to gaining the full participation of affected communities in the response.
“I congratulate Uganda for its robust and comprehensive response which has resulted in today’s victory over Ebola,” he said.
Adding, "Lessons learned and the systems put in place for this outbreak will protect Ugandans and others in the years ahead.”
This Ebola outbreak was caused by the Sudan ebolavirus, one of six species of the Ebola virus against which no therapeutics and vaccines have been approved yet.
It was the country’s first Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in a decade and its fifth overall for this kind of Ebola.
A total of 164 cases (142 confirmed and 22 probable) were reported, 55 confirmed deaths and 87 recovered patients.
More than 4000 people who came in contact with confirmed cases were followed up and their health monitored for 21 days.
The overall, the case-fatality ratio was 47%.
WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said that with no vaccines and therapeutics, this was one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks in the past five years, but Uganda stayed the course and continuously fine-tuned its response.
"Two months ago, it looked as if Ebola would cast a dark shadow over the country well into 2023, as the outbreak reached major cities such as Kampala and Jinja, but this win starts off the year on a note of great hope for Africa,” he said.
Although the outbreak in Uganda has been declared over, health authorities are maintaining surveillance and are ready to respond quickly to any flare-ups.
A follow-up programme has been put in place to support survivors.
Neighbouring countries remain on alert and are encouraged to continue strengthening their capacities to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.