Kampala, July 28: Ugandan authorities said on Tuesday the East African country is “free” of Ebola after the last patient was discharged in mid-June, a delicate milestone as the virus continues to plague a remote part of neighbouring Congo.
Uganda always insisted its outbreak was linked to the larger one that started in eastern Congo’s province of Ituri, which shares a land border with Uganda.
According to local authorities, the first cases in Uganda’s outbreak were Congolese people who crossed the border to seek treatment for an unknown illness before it was known they had Ebola.
Congo declared its outbreak on May 15, the same day Uganda confirmed two Ebola cases — including a man who had already died.
“Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks that informed the current 42-day declaration policy, Uganda’s 2026 Ebola outbreak arose from a fully documented importation event,” the Ugandan Ministry of Health said in a statement Tuesday.
That statement said it was now possible to declare Uganda free of Ebola after “all identified contacts were institutionally quarantined and completed the mandatory 21-day follow-up without evidence of further transmission. Enhanced surveillance has detected no unexplained community transmission.”
The Bundibugyo type of Ebola virus responsible for the outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment. The region’s outbreak has been declared a global health emergency.
Ugandan health authorities have experience in quickly stopping Ebola outbreaks. After the confirmation of Ebola cases in May, the president urged Ugandans to “ stop shaking hands,” and ordered the postponement of an annual religious event that attracts thousands of pilgrims — from Congo and elsewhere — who converge around a Catholic shrine just outside the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in June.
Other measures included the suspension of all public transportation and flights between Uganda and Congo, where the outbreak remains worrisome.
Confirmed cases in Congo have reached 3,262, its Ministry of Health said in an overnight update. Data by Congolese health authorities showed that 1,437 patients have died, in what officials have said is the fastest Ebola outbreak on record.
The Ebola case number in Congo is likely to top the previous highest toll in the country in the next few days. That outbreak lasted two years, while this one is only 10 weeks in.
Only the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, considered the worst in history, has a higher toll, with 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.
The speed of transmission in the current outbreak comes amid concerns from residents that many communities in the affected provinces are either unreachable or have been abandoned by responders in recent days over safety concerns amid attacks from angry residents and rebels.
Tracing and isolating Ebola contacts is seen as key to stopping the spread of the disease, which usually manifests as haemorrhagic fever.
A family of fruit bats is believed to be the natural hosts of the viruses that cause Ebola, according to the World Health Organization. Ebola is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. (AP)
