Kenya will continue to prepare for any possible future Ebola virus disease outbreak despite the World Health Organisation declaring Uganda to be Ebola free.
The Ministry of Health on Tuesday maintained that Kenya is still at risk of Ebola importation, hence the need to continue to strengthen the country’s preparedness and response.
Health CS Susan Wafula said due to the proximity of Kenya to countries that have experienced previous Ebola outbreaks and enormous human traffic in the region, Kenya is a high risk of importation of Ebola in the future.
“It is therefore incumbent on us to continue strengthening our prevention, preparedness, response, and resilience capacities, for us to better respond to future public health emergencies based on the lessons learned from this Ebola outbreak,” Wafula said.
“This will require the collective efforts of the national and county governments, development partners, and society at large.”
WHO on January 11 declared Uganda Ebola Free 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.
WHO director general 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.
The 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.
