Ugandan health officials announced on Tuesday that the country has released its last group of Ebola patients, marking the end of hospitalizations tied to an outbreak declared last month.
The World Health Organization praised this as a major step forward, crediting Uganda’s rapid intervention in managing the situation.
Treatment efforts were concentrated at Kampala’s leading medical facility, where most of those infected received care. The outbreak’s only confirmed fatality was a male nurse who passed away on January 30, just before health authorities officially recognized the crisis.
His relatives later fell ill and were admitted for treatment. Officials traced at least 265 individuals linked to the initial case, with 90 of them successfully completing a monitoring period without developing symptoms, according to Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng.
While no licensed vaccines exist for the Sudan strain of Ebola, scientists have begun clinical trials to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an experimental immunization as part of ongoing containment measures.
Uganda last faced a deadly Ebola outbreak in September 2022, which claimed at least 55 lives before being brought under control four months later.
The virus spreads through direct exposure to infected bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces. Symptoms include high fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting, muscle aches, and, in some cases, internal and external bleeding.