The cases multiply. Three people have died of Ebola in Uganda, bringing the number of victims to four from three days ago and the announcement by the authorities of the presence of an “epidemic” in the center of the country, the Ministry of Health reported on Friday. Health.
“In the last 24 hours, … three new deaths have been recorded,” the ministry said in a statement. All the deaths and cases were recorded in Mubende district, some 150 kilometers west of the capital Kampala.
A total of 11 confirmed cases have also been identified, according to the Ministry of Health, which noted that 58 contact cases have been identified.
Emma Ainebyoona, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, told AFP that “travel restrictions for non-essential jobs have been imposed in Mubende district, the epicenter of the outbreak.”
Imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The health authorities of this African country in the Great Lakes region announced on Tuesday the death of a 24-year-old man from Ebola, the first since 2019.
The deceased’s case came from a “relatively rare” Sudanese strain, which had not been reported in Uganda since 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday.
Uganda has previously experienced outbreaks of Ebola, a disease that has claimed thousands of lives in Africa since its discovery in 1976 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The last cases registered in the country date from 2019, with at least five deaths, after the “virus was imported from the DRC that was fighting a large epidemic in its northeastern region,” according to the WHO. In a previous outbreak in 2000, 200 people died.
Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero told AFP on Tuesday that authorities had begun vaccinating “front-line workers” — health workers, security personnel, immigration and customs officials — in the areas. border with the DRC.
“We have deployed 12,000 doses of vaccine and expect an additional 10,000 doses this month to control any possible spread of Ebola in the country,” he said.
An Ebola case was also reported in August in the Congolese province of North Kivu, on the border with Rwanda and Uganda, less than six weeks after an outbreak in eastern DRC was declared complete, the 14th in the country history.
Between 41% and 100% mortality
Ebola virus disease is usually fatal, but there are now vaccines and treatments for this hemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted to humans through infected animals.
Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhea. Infected people only become contagious after the onset of symptoms, after an incubation period ranging from 2 to 21 days.
The disease has six different strains, three of which (Bundibugyo, Sudan, Zaire) have already caused major epidemics.
“The mortality rates of the Sudanese strain ranged from 41% to 100% in previous outbreaks,” the WHO explained.
If vaccination campaigns have been effective in controlling the spread of Ebola during recent epidemics in the DRC, “this vaccine has only been approved to protect against the Zaire strain”, underlines the WHO.
“Another vaccine produced by Johnson and Johnson may be effective, but has not yet been tested specifically against the Sudanese strain,” the organization said.
The deadliest outbreak on the continent took place between 2013 and 2016 in West Africa, claiming more than 11,300 lives.
Source: BFM TV
