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.
Uganda’s health authorities have confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the capital, Kampala, following the death of a 32-year-old male nurse.
The nurse, who had symptoms such as high fever, chest pain, breathing difficulty, and bleeding from various body parts, passed away from multi-organ failure on Wednesday at Mulago National Hospital in the city center.
This incident marks the eighth reported Ebola outbreak in Uganda since the disease was first detected in the country in 2000.
The outbreak is caused by the Sudan Ebola Virus Disease (SUDV), a highly contagious form of hemorrhagic fever spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals. It is one of the several strains of the Ebola virus responsible for outbreaks.
Before his death, the nurse visited several medical facilities and even consulted a traditional healer, but it wasn’t until later that the disease was diagnosed. He also sought treatment at a public hospital in Mbale, a town near the Kenyan border.
Health officials have identified 44 individuals who had close contact with the deceased, including 30 healthcare workers, and are actively tracing their whereabouts.
While authorities have deployed rapid response teams to manage the outbreak, the effort faces challenges due to the dense and heavily trafficked nature of Kampala, a city of more than four million residents. Kampala is a major travel hub connecting Uganda with neighboring countries like South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda.
Uganda’s most recent Ebola outbreak occurred in September 2022, centered in Mubende district, and was also caused by the Sudan strain. It was declared over after a four-month containment period.
There are six known Ebola virus types, with Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, and Taï Forest being the ones that cause human infections. The Reston and Bombali strains mainly affect animals.
Unlike the Zaire strain, which has a vaccine available, there is no approved vaccine for Sudan Ebola.
Ebola symptoms typically begin with fever, fatigue, muscle aches, and a sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, and bleeding both internally and externally.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Ebola has an average fatality rate of about 50%, but in some outbreaks, the death rate has ranged from 25% to 90%, depending on various factors and how the outbreak is handled.
Uganda’s health minister will receive a shipment of Ebola vaccine candidates on Thursday, which will be used in a clinical trial.
Since announcing an outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola in September, the country has confirmed 142 cases, with 56 deaths.
The consignment will be received from World Health Organization representatives at a warehouse near the capital, Kampala, according to health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona in a tweet.
According to the AFP news agency, the health minister is expected to announce the start date of the trials.
Uganda has not registered any new positive Ebola cases in over three weeks, indicating that the outbreak might be under control.
President Yoweri Museveniof Uganda has extended a quarantine imposed on two districts at the epicentre of the country’s Ebola outbreak by 21 days, saying his government’s response to the disease was successful.
The presidency announced late Saturday that movement into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda will be restricted until December 17. It was imposed for 21 days on October 15, then extended for another 21 days on November 5.
The purpose of the extension was to “further sustain the gains in Ebola control that we have made, and to protect the rest of the country from further exposure.”
The government’s anti-Ebola efforts were bearing fruit, with two districts now going nearly two weeks without new cases, according to the president.
“It may be too early to celebrate any successes, but overall, I have been briefed that the picture is good,” he said in a statement.
The East African nation has so far recorded 141 infections. Fifty-five people have died since the outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever was declared on September 20th.
Although the outbreak was gradually being brought under control, the “situation is still fragile,” Museveni said, adding that the country’s weak health system and circulation of misinformation about the disease were still a challenge.
The Ebola virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain, which spread during recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
In a statement, the ministry said no participant at the marathon presented any symptom of the deadly virus.
It added that no Ebola case had been registered in the capital city beyond those already under quarantine.
The country is grappling with an Ebola outbreak that has so far killed over 50 people. Schools have been closed and a lockdown imposed in two districts thought to be the epicentre of outbreak.
The authorities say efforts have been made to prevent exportation of the virus to other parts of the country.
Fighting deadly Ebolain rural Uganda has been hampered by belief in witchcraft or witchdoctors, ignorance, misconceptions and failure to observe hygiene protocols, Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng explained.Talking to the media on Friday, Dr Aceng said a village celebrity caught the virus, went to a bar where he interacted with revellers, and by the time the disease put him down, he had more than 40 contacts.The area being an opposition stronghold, people held the view that there was no Ebola and that the government was only saying its the epicentre of the disease to get money from development partners.
Dr Aceng further said some villagers, believing Ebola was a result of witchcraft, ran away to a neighbouring village, spreading the disease.
The rough terrain, poor roads, and the rainy season have compounded the Ebola response challenge. The minister said ambulances have been getting stuck and unable to move in various parts of the affected districts.
Christmas lockdown?
Explaining the challenge Ebola is causing to the country, she said Kampala had been marked as a hotspot due to the high population density, congestion and movement, warning that once the disease hits the capital, it was likely to spread to neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan.
“I don’t want a lockdown, but Ebola can devastate a nation and bring it to its knees like the situation was in West Africa,” she said, adding that hotels were refusing or charging exorbitant amounts to host the quarantined people.
According to the minister, Uganda is considering restricting movement during the Christmas festivities to contain the spread. Ugandans often travel more during the celebrations, mainly from the cities to villages. At the same time, village traders move to cities to buy commodities for the festivities, actions that could cause an Ebola explosion, according to health officials.
The Ebola virus has killed 55 people since it was declared in Uganda over 60 days ago, according to World Health Organisation (WHO). Over 141 cases have been confirmed, while 76 have recovered after treatment as the health officials monitor the 764 contacts.
Officials say there has been a success with a drop in average daily cases recorded from 10 to about two in the last week.
Vaccine trials
Next week Uganda is expected to receive three Ebola vaccine candidates for clinical trials, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
The vaccine trials were approved by Uganda and the UN health agency, which is working with the ministry and Makerere University for the trial preparations.
Health workers and people who were in contact with Ebola patients will be among the first to be inoculated, the ministry said.
Ebola has spread to nine districts, including Kampala, Masaka, and Jinja.
To support Uganda, the WHO has deployed more than 200 experts, including over 60 epidemiologists. The agency has also launched an $ 88.2 million appeal for the Ebola response, including in neighbouring countries, of which about $17 billion or 20 percent has been received.
The strain, the Sudan Ebola virus, is the fifth outbreak since it was identified in 1976.
Ebola has taken almost everything and everyone dear to Joseph Singiringabo. The 78-year-old lost his wife, son, and newborn granddaughter tothe disease in a matter of weeks.
He is left to care for three grandchildren under the age of 13 after their mother fled the village to avoid the threat of Ebola. His livestock was stolen while he was incarcerated for the required 21 days, leaving him destitute and desperate.
“I’m not sure where they got the virus from because I went and got checked and I left the hospital with no problems with these children of mine,” he said, sitting on a log outside his modest house in Madudu, Uganda’s central Mubende district.
“The problem I am facing now is getting food. Secondly, I never went to school, but I want these grandchildren to continue and get educated.”
A deadly outbreak
Uganda is grappling with its deadliest Ebola outbreak in more than a decade, first detected in the Mubende district in late September.
The 2012 Ebola outbreak in the Kibaale district in the country’s western region, led to 17 deaths out of 24 confirmed cases but was declared over in less than 3 months.
Officials have launched aggressive contact tracing to track down relatives and friends who handled the bodies of first victims or attended funerals.
Some escaped from quarantine facilities, others traveled as far as the capital Kampala, and a few visited traditional healers and witchdoctors for treatment instead.
“Some of the patients are still hiding and they don’t know that they have Ebola so they’re out there in the community,” public health physician Dr. Jackson Amone told CNN.
An Ebola treatment unit in Mubende, Uganda. Larry Madowo/CNN
He has been involved in every Ebola outbreak in Uganda as well as in Sierra Leone in 2017. “We need to do case investigation, a lot of contact tracing, and community engagement so that those who present with Ebola symptoms are brought for testing before we release them.”
Dr. Amone is leading the teams operating the Ebola Treatment Units in Mubende. The first was set up in a hurry on the edge of the Mubende Regional Referral Hospital.
A larger center operated by the medical non-profit Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is expanding with new ICU beds on the other side of town.
Health workers don extensive Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to enter the red zones where patients are receiving treatment.
In one zone, a health worker cradles a three-month-old baby suspected of having been infected. Her mother and another sibling are undergoing treatment for Ebola and the disease has already claimed the life of her father.
It’s a cruel welcome to the world for the infant who is wrapped in a blanket as steady rain falls on the makeshift treatment center.
It’s a familiar story across this region as Ebola spreads despite the Ugandan government’s best efforts.
“This Ebola is much easier to deal with than either corona(virus) or AIDS. The main problem here is behavior change,” President Yoweri Museveni told the nation in a Tuesday night address, stressing the need to follow the government’s procedures for those who come into contact with the disease.
Vaccine trials offer hope
Ebola can spread from person to person through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids such as saliva, sweat, semen, or feces, or through contaminated objects like bedding or needles.
“It doesn’t spread through the air like COVID-19and does not hide for some months before it shows itself like AIDS,” Museveni said in his televised address.
The country had so far recorded 55 deaths from Ebola, 141 confirmed cases and 73 people had recovered, he said.
Health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero told CNN she expects Uganda to have the outbreak under control by April if communities cooperate with the government.
Health workers don extensive Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to enter the red zones where patients are receiving treatment Larry Madowo/CNN
There are currently two licensed Ebola vaccines, according to the World Health Organization, but they were developed to be safe and protective against the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus.
Unlike the previous Zaire ebolavirus, the Sudan strain currently circulating in Uganda has no known effective treatment or approved vaccine. However, the country is about to roll out three trial vaccines that have been certified as safe by the World Health Organization (WHO) working group.
The WHO said the first doses would be shipped to Uganda next week and the country expects to expand the vaccine trials after reviewing results from the initial phase.
They are manufactured by the International Aids Vaccine Iniative (IAVI), the Sabin Vaccine Institute USA and a third developed by the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute UK.
“Our further testing is about efficacy, and how long it protects. We are looking at 3,000 contacts of confirmed cases so we’ll be doing ring vaccination,” Aceng Ocero said, referring to a vaccine process that administers vaccines only to people in close contact with infected patients.
“If we have a confirmed case, then the contacts are the ones who are given the vaccine and they are followed up for 29 days because we want to see if they can quickly generate antibodies and can protect themselves from getting into full-blown disease,” Aceng Ocero added.
Obstacles of tradition and religion
Public health officials believe that cases are stabilizing due to increased vigilance, but tradition and religion are holding back progress. One community in Kassanda district, central Uganda, exhumed a body that had been buried safely by health workers to perform religious rites.
It led to “an explosion of over 41 cases within 5 days and 10 deaths,” President Museveni said in his address. He has now barred traditional healers and witchdoctors from taking clients during the Ebola outbreak.
Infections are also rising as it is hard to keep people apart in close-knit communal settings. Robert Twinamasiko, a 30-year-old driver is undergoing treatment after he helped an infected friend to an ambulance. The friend and one other person involved both died.
A 30-year-old driver, Robert Twinamasiko receives treatment for Ebola after helping an infected friend to an ambulance. Larry Madowo/CNN
Twinamasiko has spent 17 days in hospital but says he has no regrets. Although he looked frail, he was making a recovery and told CNN he was looking forward to going home.
“I’m just waiting for my blood work to be discharged but the world out there should know that Ebola is real,” he said from inside a red zone.
Uganda is also trying to contain the spread of the disease by closing the school term early to avoid an outbreak of Ebola in schools which could be hard to manage. “If you have one learner in a class testing positive, the entire class has to undergo quarantine. But also, you will not be 100% sure that that learner did not have contact with other learners outside that class,” Minister Aceng Ocero explained.
She said she was frustrated that Uganda wasn’t getting enough credit internationally for managing the Ebola crisis. “We have experience. This is our eighth Ebola outbreak. Every time we get an outbreak, our experience increases,” she said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that three trial vaccines for Ebola will arrive in Uganda next week.
The announcement was made during the G20 meeting in Indonesia.
“Today I’m pleased to announce that the WHO committee of external experts, has evaluated three candidate vaccines and agreed that all three should be included in the planned trial in Uganda. WHO and Uganda’s minister of health has conceded and accepted the committee’s recommendation. We expect that the first dose of vaccines to be shipped to Uganda next week”, announced Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
An Ebola outbreak in Uganda was declared in late September. Since then, Ebola claimed at least 55 deaths.
“We hope – I dearly hope – that this epidemic goes away. And this epidemic is controllable without vaccines, it’s clear that we can get containment without vaccines. But it’s also clear from the Congo experience that you can get to control much quicker using effective vaccines and that’s where the answers we need to get”, said Michael Ryan, WHO health emergencies director.
Two of the three trial vaccines were developed in the UK, the third trial vaccine comes from the US.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has assured foreign visitors that the Ebola outbreak in the East African nation will be brought under control.
In an address to the country on Tuesday, the president noted that foreign tourists were cancelling bookings and international conferences had been cancelled or moved to other countries.
He said the epidemic was localised – with active cases in just six out of 146 districts across the country.
“Uganda is safe and international guests are welcome,” he added.
He said that a list of people exposed to the virus had been provided to immigration authorities to prevent them from international travel.
Some 141 cases with 55 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak was confirmed in September.
The presidentsaid that progress had been made in controlling the epidemic.
For 18 days, there had been no confirmed cases in Mubende district, the epicentre of the outbreak, although one case was reported on Monday, according to health officials.
Mr Museveni said that efforts to control the epidemic were being hampered by some members of the public who were refusing to adhere to health restrictions.
Motorcycle taxis, known as boda boda, were defying lockdown rules in the affected areas and transporting passengers instead of only cargo.
In Kassanda district, 10 members of an extended family died of Ebola after exhuming a body interred by official burial teams and reburying it according to their religious beliefs.
In Kampala, two contacts linked to separate cases escaped from facilities – one to Masaka city and another to Jinja city – and both have since died.
Even though the epidemic has spread to districts far from the epicentre in the central region, Ugandan officials seem confident that the outbreak can be controlled before it spreads.
Uganda will close schools nationwide later this month after 23 Ebola cases were confirmed among pupils, including eight children who died, the country’s first lady said on Tuesday.Janet Museveni, who is also the education minister, said there had been cases in five schools in the capital Kampala, as well as the neighbouring Wakiso district and Mubende, the epicentre of the outbreak.She said the cabinet had agreed to close pre-primary, primary and secondary schools from November 25, two weeks before the scheduled end of term.”Closing schools earlier will reduce areas of concentration where children are in daily close contact with fellow children, teachers and other staff who could potentially spread the virus,” said the minister and wife of President Yoweri Museveni.
On Saturday, Uganda extended a three-week lockdown on Mubende and neighbouring Kassanda, the two central districts at the heart of the outbreak which has claimed more than 50 lives.
Advertisement
The measures include a dusk-to-dawn curfew, a ban on personal travel and the closure of markets, bars and churches.
Since the outbreak was declared in Mubende on September 20, the disease has spread across the East African nation, including to the capital Kampala.
But the president has said nationwide curbs were not needed.
Fifty three people have died of Ebola out of 135 cases according to government figures dated November 6.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week said Uganda had registered over 150 confirmed and probable cases, including 64 fatalities.
Uganda’s last recorded fatality from a previous Ebola outbreak was in 2019.
The strain now circulating is known as the Sudan Ebola virus, for which there is currently no vaccine, although there are several candidate vaccines heading towards clinical trials.
Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, with common symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.
Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.
Janet Kataha Museveni, Uganda’s minister of education, announced on Tuesday that the country would cut the length of the school year by two weeks in an effort to decrease everyday contact between pupils and slow the spread of the Ebola virus.
Since the pandemic spread to Kampala, the country’s capital and home to some two million people, authorities have been battling to contain the extremely contagious and lethal haemorrhagic fever.
According to the health ministry, the nation has 135 confirmed cases overall as of Monday, along with 53 fatalities.
Preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools would be closed on November 25 due to the significant risk of infection posed by overcrowded classrooms, according to the ministry.
In a statement signed by Museveni, he said “Closing schools earlier will reduce areas of concentration where children are in daily close contact with fellow children, teachers, and other staff who could potentially spread the virus.”
Currently, students in Uganda are completing their third and last term of the academic year, which is followed by their promotional exams.
According to Museveni, who is also the president’s wife, there have been 23 confirmed cases in youngsters, eight of which have resulted in fatalities.
Six school children in Uganda’s capital have tested positive for Ebola, the health minister said Wednesday, marking a serious escalation of the outbreak declared just over a month ago.
The children, who attend three different schools in Kampala, are among at least 15 people in the city confirmed to have been infected with Ebola, according to a statement by Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng.
The children are members of a family exposed to the disease by a man who traveled from one Ebola-hit district, sought treatment in Kampala, and died there, the statement said.
“He is responsible for infecting the family of seven, including the neighbors and many others,” the statement said, speaking of the traveling Ebola patient. “We were able to get this cluster, plus one other, because of the ministry’s vigilance in contact tracing and field case management.”
Authorities are “following up” 170 contacts from schools the six children attend, it said.
Fears that Ebola could spread far from the outbreak’s epicenter compelled authorities to impose an ongoing lockdown, including nighttime curfews, on two of the five districts reporting Ebola cases on Oct. 16. The measures were put in place after a man infected with Ebola traveled to Kampala and died there, becoming the city’s first confirmed Ebola case.
Tracing contacts is key to stemming the spread of contagious diseases like Ebola.
The head of the Uganda Medical Association on Tuesday urged health authorities to impose a lockdown in Kampala, a stringent measure that the country’s president has previously said he doesn’t want to implement.
That official, Dr. Samuel Oledo, told reporters the situation was alarming because some “people are not even reporting cases” of Ebola.
Ebola, which manifests as viral hemorrhagic fever, has infected 109 people and killed 30 since Sept. 20, when the outbreak was declared several days after the disease began spreading in a rural community in central Uganda.
Ugandan health officials in the district of Mubende, the epicenter, were not quick to confirm Ebola partly because the disease’s symptoms can mimic those of the more prevalent malaria.
Ebola is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and, at times, internal and external bleeding.
Uganda’s national referral hospital Mulago in the capital Kampala has confirmed more than nine positive cases for the Ebola virus.
Seven of the new positive cases are from one family, while the others are a health worker and his wife.
The health worker is from a local clinic in an area just outside the city, where he treated one of the now-positive cases.
This brings the number of positive cases at the facility’s isolation unit to 14.
Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has said that the positive cases are contacts of an individual from Kassanda, one of the most affected districts, who recently died at Mulago hospital.
There is growing concern that the outbreak could get out of hand as more cases continue to be reported in the capital.
There is an ongoing quarantine in the two most affected districts of Mubende and Kassanda, but cases have continued to rise.
Last week, officials inspected health facilities in Kampala and Entebbe region to check on their readiness to handle Ebola cases.
It has been over a month since an outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola was first reported in Uganda’s central region, in a rural part of Mubende district.
Official figures show there are currently 75 positive Ebola casesin the country, 28 of whom have died. These are only confirmed cases, and do not include figures for probable cases or deaths.
As the government faces an Ebola outbreak, two areas in Uganda have been placed under lockdown for three weeks.
Bars, nightclubs, houses of worship, and entertainment venues in Mubende and neighbouring Kassanda will be closed, and a curfew will be imposed.
The move is a U-turn for Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who previously said there was no need for such measures.
This latest outbreak has killed 19 people among 58 recorded cases.
However, the real number of deaths and cases may be higher.
The outbreak began in early September in Mubende, about 80km (50 miles) from the capital Kampala, and has remained the epicentre.
President Museveni had previously ruled out lockdowns, saying Ebola was not an airborne virus so did not require the same measures as Covid-19.
But on Saturday he halted all movement in and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts for 21 days.
Cargo trucks will still be allowed to enter and leave the areas, he said, but all other transport will be stopped.
“These are temporary measures to control the spread of Ebola,” he said in a televised address.
“We should all cooperate with authorities so we bring this outbreak to an end in the shortest possible time.”
The president had already ordered police to arrest anyone suspected of having the virus who refused to isolate.
And he has forbidden traditional healers from trying to handle cases. In previous outbreaks, healers have been associated with hotspots for the spread of the virus.
The first recorded death in this outbreak was a 24-year-old man in Mubende. Six members of his family also died.
It later reached the capital Kampala, with one death recorded in October. But health officials said the city remained virus-free, as the man who died had travelled from Mubende.
This latest outbreak is of the Sudan strain of the virus, for which there is no approved vaccine. The Zaire strain, which killed 11,000 people in an outbreak across West Africa from 2013-2016, can be vaccinated against.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids or contaminated material.
Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, and in some cases internal or external bleeding.
The incubation period can last from two days to three weeks, and the virus can be associated with other illnesses, such as malaria and typhoid.
The Ugandan capital, Kampala, remains Ebola-free despite a 45-year-old man dying from the virus in the city a week ago, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
The victim – the 19th death from Ebola in the current outbreak – had fled from Mubende district.
On Thursday, the Ugandan authorities said that his wife had tested positive before giving birth at a clinic in the hospital, AFP reports.
“I want to state very clearly that this does not mean Kampala has Ebola,” Dr Aceng said.
“Cases that were already listed in Mubende remain cases of Mubende. Unless Kampala generates its own cases that start within Kampala, we cannot call that a Kampala case.”
Uganda has recorded 58 cases of the Sudan strain of Ebola since last month. There is no vaccine available for this strain.
President Yoweri Museveni’s office has announced that on Saturday he will be addressing the nation on Ebola for the second time this week.
African health ministers attending a high-level meeting following the Ebola outbreak in Uganda want two regional health bodies to set up an Africa Ebola co-ordination task force.
They said this would oversee preparedness and response to the current outbreak as well as other epidemics in the continent.
The latest Ebola outbreak has so far killed 19 people in Uganda, including four health workers. The virus has now spread to five districts.
Acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, Ahmed Ogwell, says Africa needs to stop seeking international assistance, as it is on its own during pandemics.
“This is not the first outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebolavirus here in Africa and particularly here in Uganda,” he told the gathering in the Ugandan capital, Kampala
“As Africa, we must now do things differently, appreciating that for the most time we will be on our own. Knowing that we are on our own, though, needs to motivate us so that we can do things on our own but not alone,” he added.
Plans are under way to test two vaccines in a small group of people who had contact with Ebola patients.
The Africa CDC says the continent is dealing with 11 different public health outbreaks. They are monkeypox, cholera, flooding, influenza, lassa fever, measles, yellow fever, hepatitis E, and the Crimean – Congo haemorrhagic fever.
“Traditional healers are forbidden from handling Ebola cases,” Uganda’s President Yoweri declared in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening, in the latest effort to curb the spread of the disease.
Across much of Africa, the practice of traditional medicine, passed down generations through family lineage or apprenticeship, is widespread.
During outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola, they’ve proven to be a critical point of vulnerability.
In May 2014, the first confirmed case of Ebola in Sierra Leone was recorded.
Investigations led to a traditional healer, described as “well-known and widely respected”, in Kenema in Eastern Province.
Patients from across the border in Guinea had sought her services. Soon, she became ill and died. Hundreds attended her funeral and burial ceremony.
The World Health Organization reported that local authoritieslater linked up to 365 Ebola deaths to that one burial.
Later in 2018, during an outbreak of the disease in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, clinics that provided a mixture of herbal and pharmaceutical medicine, called ‘tradi-moderne,’ were quickly identified as hotspots of infection.
They were staffed by healers who barely had a formal education, and who had no protective equipment.
But they fill a glaring gap in medical care, where hospitals are few and far between.
Rather than ban them, response teams trained and equipped the healers to safely identify and refer Ebola patients to specialised treatment centres.
Uganda’s health system is much more developed. There’s a sense of confidence among health officials that the current outbreak can be brought under control, as the country has during previous epidemics.
But experts meeting at a regional ministerial conference this week have urged them to be extra vigilant as every outbreak faces different challenges.
Uganda has reported 19 deaths from the current outbreak, including one in the capital Kampala.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has directed traditional healers to stop treating people during the ongoing Ebola outbreak that has so far killed 19 people in the country.
The president also directed security officials to arrest people suspected of having contracted the virus if they refuse to go into isolation.
In a televised address to the nation, during which he switched to the widely spoken Luganda language to address them directly, he told traditional healers and herbalists not to treat people suspected to be infected with the viral haemorrhagic disease.
It follows the death of a 45-year-old-man who was listed by health teams as having been exposed to the Ebola virus.
The man, who died in a hospital in the capital, Kampala, had fled his village in Mubende district, the outbreak’s epicentre.
He sought treatment from a traditional healer elsewhere before turning up at the Kampala hospital and died hours after being admitted there, authorities said.
Some of the man’s family members have been put under quarantine, while others have gone into hiding. The president urged them to report to health facilities.
Although Mr Museveni said there were currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in Kampala, he warned the public to continue being vigilant, assuring that health workers would bring the outbreak under control.
It has been almost a month since Uganda confirmed the outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola, which has now spread to five districts.
There have been 54 confirmed cases so far. Some 20 people, including five medical workers, have recovered.
African health ministers attending a high-level meeting following the Ebola outbreak in Uganda want two regional health bodies to set up an Africa Ebola co-ordination task force.
They said this would oversee preparedness and response to the current outbreak as well as other epidemics in the continent.
Acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, Ahmed Ogwell, says Africa needs to stop seeking international assistance, as it is on its own during pandemics.
“This is not the first outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola virus here in Africa and particularly here in Uganda,” he told the gathering in the Ugandan capital, Kampala
“As Africa, we must now do things differently, appreciating that for the most time we will be on our own. Knowing that we are on our own, though, needs to motivate us so that we can do things on our own but not alone,” he added.
The Africa CDC says the continent is dealing with 11 different public health outbreaks. They are monkeypox, cholera, flooding, influenza, lassa fever, measles, yellow fever, hepatitis E, and the Crimean – Congo haemorrhagic fever.
Ugandan officials say they’re now concerned about the spread of Ebola virus in the capital city of Kampala, following the death of a man who traveled there from affected regions.
Minister of Health Dr. Jane Aceng told local media outlets that another 42 people who may have been exposed through contact with the man are being monitored for infection. Aceng said he first visited the Mubende and Luweero districts and, when he became ill, sought out care from a traditional healer.
When the traditional healer was unable to help him, he traveled to Kampala for medical care. He died last Friday at Kiruddu Referral Hospital in the city, using a different name than the one originally given to health authorities who tracked him after he became infected.
Ugandan broadcaster NTV said that despite health worker outreach and communications, some people in the affected regions attribute Ebola-related illness to witchcraft and seek help from traditional healers. In one case, government officials forcibly removed 15 people from Mubende after seven family members were lost to Ebola.
Aceng said there is concern that Ebola will take hold in Kampala and its environs, which are home to 7 million people. Uganda’s Ebola outbreak, confirmed three weeks ago, has claimed at least 17 lives. There are 48 confirmed cases and more than 1,000 people are monitored for the virus.
The Ebola-Sudan strain of the virus responsible for the outbreak hasn’t been seen in Uganda since 2012. A suspected case was identified in neighboring South Sudan, with World Health Organization officials expressing concern over the risk of international spread.
A trainee doctor from Uganda who had Ebolawas officially released from the hospital on Tuesday.
Hudson Kunsa is a medical student in his last year and a resident physician at the Mubende hospital.
He shared his journey to recovery with the BBC in an interview.
Quote Message: You start with general body weakness, fevers. Your first thought as a doctor is to rule out the common things we have. I went and took my test for Ebola. After two days when they called me to the hospital, I knew it was positive.
You start with general body weakness, fevers. Your first thought as a doctor is to rule out the common things we have. I went and took my test for Ebola. After two days when they called me to the hospital, I knew it was positive.
Quote Message: So after we went to the isolation [centre] with the symptoms just starting and two, three, four, five days down the road we were at the peak of all the symptoms that you know of; the vomiting, the diarrhoea, the general body weakness. It was not a very good experience.”
So after we went to the isolation [centre] with the symptoms just starting and two, three, four, five days down the road we were at the peak of all the symptoms that you know of; the vomiting, the diarrhoea, the general body weakness. It was not a very good experience.”
The thought of death always lurked in his mind, he said.
Quote Message: At one point I was scared, thinking that we were going to die. You would see yourself diarrheaing everything out. They tell you, you have to drink but still you don’t want to drink. But eventually I came out. But the scared part was there.”
At one point I was scared, thinking that we were going to die. You would see yourself diarrheaing everything out. They tell you, you have to drink but still you don’t want to drink. But eventually I came out. But the scared part was there.”
Quote Message: This happened because we didn’t enough protective equipment as medics to use. By the time the patient we worked on died and we started experiencing the symptoms we knew that possibly we could also be infected with Ebola.”
This happened because we didn’t enough protective equipment as medics to use. By the time the patient we worked on died and we started experiencing the symptoms we knew that possibly we could also be infected with Ebola.”
The European Union has mobilised 200,000 euros to help the Ugandan Red Cross in the face of a fresh Ebola outbreak.
The outbreak has already left more than 40 people dead in the country.
The European Commission in a statement on Tuesday in response to an urgent appeal for help launched by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Uganda declared an Ebola outbreakon 20 September after confirming a case in Mubende district in central Uganda, where a 24-year-old man died from the Ebola virus after contracting the rare strain from Sudan.
This strain is not only less transmissible but also has a lower mortality (40-100%) than the Zaire strain (70-100%).
There is currently no approved vaccine against this Sudan strain, unlike the Zaire strain, which has been recorded in epidemics of the disease in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which on 24 September announced the end of its last Ebola outbreak.
Countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Somalia are on the alert to prevent the possible spread of the virus.
The anaesthetic officer who passed away in the early hours of Wednesday has been confirmed by the Ugandan health ministry.
Margaret Nabisubi, 58, is the fourth medical worker to die of Ebola, according to Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng.
I regret to announce the passing of another Health worker, Ms. Nabisubi Margaret, an anesthetic officer. The 58 year old succumbed to Ebola at 4.33am this morning at Fort Portal Hospital (JMedic) after battling the disease for 17 days.
— Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero (@JaneRuth_Aceng) October 5, 2022
A team of medics got exposed to the virus when they treated the first confirmed case, who needed surgery, and they have been admitted to Fort Portal regional hospital.
A Tanzanian medical student, who was part of the team, died at the weekend.
Separately, a health assistant in the district of Kagadi died of the virus too.
It is suspected that a midwife also died from Ebola.
Medical workers expressed concerns about not having enough personal protective gear in the first days of the outbreak.
Official figures show that there have been 43 confirmed cases since the outbreak was announced two weeks ago, and 10 of these have died.
Health officials said they have traced more than 800 people suspected to have come into contact with those who contracted the disease.
Health officialsat a major Uganda-Kenya border crossing say they have intensified screening of cargo truckers and other travellers to prevent the export of Ebola cases.
An official at the Malaba border in the east told the BBC that teams had already been screening for several infectious diseases since the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic, but have now increased their level of alertness.
Healthteams are taking details of travellers’ point of origin in Uganda, and checking for symptoms like fever, headaches and stomach pains.
Positive Ebola cases have been steadily rising. The latest figures from the health ministry show that confirmed cases now stand at 43, and nine of these have died.
One of them was a Tanzanian doctor, who died on Saturday. Dr Mohammed Ali was an intern at Mubende regional hospital where the first confirmed case had been treated.
The 37 year old was buried in western Uganda on Sunday, according to international health protocols for infectious disease epidemics.
Health teams say they have traced at least 800 people who are suspected to have come into contact with people who tested positive for Ebola. They are under observation.
The health ministry confirms that an intern physician who participated in the frontline fight against the Ebola outbreak in Uganda has passed away from the disease.
Ali Mohammed, 37, travelled from Tanzania to pursue his surgical master’s degree.
He was one of six medical trainees working at Mubende regional hospital who contracted Ebola and were moved to a quarantine center.
Mr Mohammed is the second health worker to die of the virus. The first was a midwife from a private clinic in the Mubende district.
Official figures indicate that the total number of confirmed Ebola cases stands at 35, with eight deaths.
Mubende is at the centre of this outbreak, and medical students there warned the government they were putting their lives at risk because they lacked proper equipment and sometimes had to handle patients with bare hands.
The medical association and the surgeons’ association in the country have issued messages of condolence on their Twitter accounts.
It is with great sorrow that we have received the news of the passing of Dr. Mohammed Ali, a 37 years old Tanzania national who has been pursuing a Master of Medicine in Surgery at Kampala International University.
The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Uganda has risen to 31. One more death has also been recorded, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to six.
One of the six medical workers who tested positive with the virus is now in critical condition, according to information from the country’s health ministry.
Uganda’spresident has defied calls by medical workers to put the Ebola-hit central region under quarantine to prevent the virus spreading to the rest of the country.
He went on national TV on Wednesday to say no such measures were needed because Ebola is not airborne, and said a laboratory would be set up in the virus epicentre to speed up patient testing.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization believes that Uganda’s Ebola outbreak may have been detected late, given that the first person who had it showed symptoms back in August yet the outbreak wasn’t declared until late September.
Global health experts say it is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.
The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, has stated that imposing restrictions in Ebola hotspots in the central region is not necessary as the viral disease is not airborne.
Mr Museveni said his government had the capacity to control the epidemic due to previous experience with similar outbreaks. This is the fourth time Ebola has broken out in Uganda.
He said that health experts who had previously dealt with Ebola outbreaks had been deployed to the affected region.
Ebola is spread through contact with an infected person or infected surfaces and human waste.
The association of medical workers in the country had previously called for the affected region to be put under quarantine to stop further spread of the haemorrhagic fever.
It is currently taking 24 hours for samples to be tested and laboratory results to be released.
The president said the government would set up a laboratory at Mubende district headquarters, the epicentre of the outbreak, to quicken the sample processing.
Six medical workers who treated the 24-year-old man who was later identified as the first case, have tested positive for Ebola.
A total of 24 people have been confirmed to be infected by the virus in the country, five of whom have died, since the outbreak was declared last week.
34 trainee medical personnel claimed they were refusing to work and charged the government with failing to provide them with the necessary safety equipment.
Since an epidemic was reported last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there have been 36 Ebola cases in Uganda, including 18 confirmed cases and 18 suspected cases.
It stated that 23 deaths, of which five were confirmed instances, had happened in three areas of central Uganda.
The WHO said this was the first Ebola outbreak in Uganda since 2012 caused by the Sudan strain of the disease, for which there are no licensed vaccines.
On Monday, Uganda denied reports of a strike by medical staff at the Mubende hospital.
Thirty-four trainee medical staffsaid they were refusing to work and accused the government of not providing them with appropriate safety kits.
No effective Ebola vaccine is available here yet, because the Sudan strain circulating in central Uganda is different from the Zaire strain that has afflicted West Africa and DR Congo and which can be immunized against.
Experts say it is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.
Medical interns at Uganda’s Mubende hospital have gone on strike, accusing the government of not providing them with appropriate safety kit, risk allowances and health insurance.
The hospital, located some 150 km (95 miles) from the capital, Kampala, is hosting the main isolation centre for Ebola patients as the outbreak continues to spread in the central region.
All 34 interns, including doctors, pharmacists and nurses said in a statement that they would not return to work and want to be evacuated to a facility with safer working conditions.
Six intern medical workers are said to have been exposed to the virus and are currently in isolation awaiting laboratory results.
Authorities say there have been at least 36 suspected Ebola cases, although not all have been confirmed.
At least 23 deaths are suspected to have been caused by the virus.
An outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola was declared in the country last week.
The first confirmed death was a 24-year-old-man, who lost six members of his family in the first two weeks of September.
Available vaccines against the haemorrhage-inducing virus can’t be used in Uganda because they are only effective in dealing with the Zaire strain which was behind the 2013 – 2016 outbreak in West Africa.
Yet all 34 of the hospital’s interns – including doctors, pharmacists and nurses – have announced their decision to strike in a joint statement.
They say they are being put at undue risk because they lack appropriate safety kit, risk allowances and health insurance.
Six interns at the hospital have already been exposed to the virus, and are awaiting their test results in isolation.
Since the outbreak began earlier this month, official government data shows 36 people are suspected of contracting Ebola, of whom 23 have died.
A 24-year-old-man was the first known Ebola death, and six members of his family also died.
No effective Ebola vaccine is available here yet, because the Sudan strain circulating in central Uganda is different to the Zaire strain that has afflicted West Africa and DR Congo and which can be immunised against.
Experts say it is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.
The number of suspected Ebola infections continues to rise in Uganda.
Currently, the country’s Health Ministry is monitoring 34 suspected cases.
Health officials are also investigating 21 deaths believed to be as a result of the Ebola virus. Already, health teams are continuing to trace any people that may have come into contact with it.
The outbreak began in the central district of Mubende but has now spread to two neighbouring districts.
There are as yet no confirmed cases in the capital Kampala.
This is the fourth Ebola outbreak Uganda has faced. Neighbouring countries have said that they are on high alert.
Three more Ebola patients have died in Uganda, the health ministry said on Friday, bringing the total death toll to four.
This comes days after authorities confirmed an outbreak.
“In the last 24 hours, three new deaths have been recorded,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Uganda’s health ministry has so far confirmed 11 cases of Ebola in total, including four deaths.
The current outbreak, attributed to the Ebola Sudan strain, appears to have started in a small village in Mubende district around the beginning of September, authorities say.
Seven other deaths are being investigated for being linked to the outbreak in Mubende, around 130 km west of the capital Kampala.
The first casualty was a 24-year-old man who died earlier this week.
The World Health Organization says the Ebola Sudan strain is less transmissible and has shown a lower fatality rate in previous outbreaks than Ebola Zaire, a strain that killed nearly 2,300 people in the 2018-2020 epidemic in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The health ministry in Uganda has revealed three more lives have been lost to Ebola, bringing the total number to four since an outbreak was declared earlier this week.
So far, 11 cases have been confirmed.
Meanwhile, some seven other deaths are being investigated to see if they’re linked to the outbreak in Mubende west of the capital Kampala.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Ebola Sudan strain which is present in Uganda is less transmissible and has shown a lower fatality rate in previous outbreaks of a different strain, Ebola Zaire.
Between 2018 and 2020, it killed nearly more than 2,000 people in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Mubende district of Uganda has recorded an additional 11 suspected Ebola cases, according to the Ministry of Uganda.
In a statement issued on Tuesday September 20, 2022, the ministry stated that the death of a one-year-old was most likely caused by Ebola.
It indicated that samples from the 1-year-old and the 10 suspected cases that are being kept in isolation are being analyzed at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.
After a case of the relatively uncommon Sudan strain was discovered in the nation, Uganda declared an Ebola epidemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), on Tuesday.
A sample from a 24-year-old male in the Mubende district, who the government claimed had died after exhibiting symptoms, was tested to confirm he contracted the virus.
In Uganda, it is believed a second person, a young child, has died of Ebola in a hospital in the centre of the country, according to the local New Vision newspaper.
Tests are being conducted to confirm the cause of death.
Health officials say the deceased was one of 14 people admitted to hospital with Ebola-like symptoms.
Tests are also being conducted on six people who died of what locals have described as a strange illness earlier this month.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization confirmed Uganda’s first outbreak of the rare Sudan strain of Ebola in more than a decade.
A 24-year-old man infected with Ebola has died in central Uganda in a fresh outbreak confirmed by health officials.
The health minister has told journalists that the victim had exhibited symptoms before succumbing to the disease.
He was a resident of Ngabano village in Mubende district, about 147km (91 miles) from the capital, Kampala.
The case of the relatively rare Sudan strain was confirmed by the Uganda Virus Research Institute, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.
It says eight people with suspected symptoms are receiving medical care, and that it is sending staff to the affected area.
“Thanks to its [Uganda] expertise, action has been taken to quickly to detect the virus and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti – WHO regional director for Africa.
Uganda confirms an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Mubende District, Uganda.
The confirmed case is a 24 year old male a resident Ngabano village of Madudu Sub County in Mubende District presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed. pic.twitter.com/36i9xyxdxm
According to laboratory findings, a woman in the city of Beni passed away as a result of the virus, the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) reported today.
A statement by the INRB, seen by Reuters, disclosed that the new Ebola case is genetically linked to the 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. That outbreak had killed more than 2000 people. Last year, an Ebola outbreak killed seven people.
The latest confirmed case came days after a woman admitted to a hospital in the city of Beni died. The city of Beni is said to be geographically different from the known epicentres of the virus. So, authorities are trying to establish a correlation.
“Our initial findings indicate that this case likely represents a new flare-up of the 2018-2020 Nord Kivu/Ituri outbreak, initiated by transmission of Ebola virus from a persistently infected survivor or a survivor who experienced a relapse,” the statement by the INRB explained.
As epidemiologists work to establish the connection, all 131 persons who were in contact with the latest Ebola victim have all been identified. Among them are 60 front-line healthcare workers, 59 of whom are vaccinated against the deadly virus.
The DRC has been dealing with intermittent Ebola outbreaks over the years. Specifically, a total of 14 outbreaks have been recorded between 1976 and date. The country’s tropical rain forests are said the be the major source of the virus.
Also, Ebola survivors can remain vectors for a while as the virus can linger in survivors’ bodily fluids central nervous systems and even in the eyes.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed the presence of two Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) cases in the Ashanti Region.
The highly infectious disease was suspected after two people in separate parts of the Ashanti Region met the case definition for an Acute Haemorrhagic Fever.
 Blood samples of the two suspected carriers of the virus were sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, where initial tests pointed to the Marburg virus as the likely cause of the infections.Â
The blood samples have since been sent to the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal for further verification with the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to GHS’ statement, “No new cases have been reported since the two samples were taken two weeks ago.”
In addition, the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has identified and quarantined 34 people who came into contact with the two confirmed cases.Â
The Directorate, with the assistance of the Ghana Health Service, is conducting additional investigations into the cases through contact tracing.Â
GHS has advised the public to be on the lookout for any of the above symptoms, and anyone experiencing any of them should immediately seek medical attention.
— Ghana Health Service Official (@_GHSofficial) July 7, 2022
About Marburg Virus
Marburg Virus Disease is a rare but severe haemorrhagic fever that affects both humans and non-human primates. It is caused by the Marburg virus. It is transmitted by infected persons or animals from direct contact with body fluids, blood and other discharges from the affected person/animal. The incubation period for the disease is two (2) to twenty-one (21) days. Treatment is symptomatic. There is currently no vaccine available.
High fever, severe headache, and general malaise are the initial symptoms of a sudden onset of illness. Within 7 days, many patients show severe signs of haemorrhage. Prior outbreaks saw fatality rates anywhere from 24% to 88%, depending on the virus type and how the outbreaks were handled.
Supportive care, including rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival despite the lack of vaccines or antiviral treatments approved for the virus. Blood products, immune therapies, and drug therapies are some of the potential treatments that are currently being researched and tested.
Seven people died in the first ever Marburg outbreak in Germany in 1967.
Extremely uncommon; the last major outbreak was in 2005 in Angola.
According to the World Health Organization, 2005’s outbreak in Angola was the deadliest ever.
Prospective cases may present will:
Fever
Bloody diarrhoea,
Bleeding from gums,
Bleeding into the skin
Bleeding into eyes and
Bloody urine
Preventative measures include:
Don’t touch the body fluids (like urine, saliva, sweat, faeces, vomit, breast milk, and sperm) of infected persons
Maintain good hand hygiene by regularly washing your hands with soap and water and use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Avoid touching anything that may have come into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
Do not come into contact with dead bodies, including through funeral or burial rites, if you are in an area where Marburg has been confirmed or is suspected.
Fever (body temperature 38C or above), severe headache, fatigue (feeling very tired), muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pain, or unexplained bleeding or bruising are all reasons to visit a doctor as soon as possible (the nearest health facility).
Viral news suggesting a possible Ebola outbreak in the northern parts of Ghana is untrue, theindependentghana can confirm.
Reports that made rounds on online news portals and social media platforms had it that Ebola, a deadly virus, had broken out in the northern part of Ghana, but the Ghana Health Service(GHS) refuted those claims.
The Service, in a tweet, urged the general public to disregard such reports.
About Ebola
The Ebola Virus Disease, also known as EVD, is a highly contagious illness that can be fatal in both humans and nonhuman primates.
It was first described in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since then, the virus has emerged periodically and infected people in several African countries.
Symptoms of the virus may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after contact with the virus, with an average of 8 to 10 days.
â—ï¸FOR YOUR INFORMATIONâ—ï¸
“There is no confirmed Case of Ebola in Ghana†– Dr. Patrick Kuma- Aboagye, Director-General of Ghana Health Service. pic.twitter.com/72bMm0X722
— Ghana Health Service Official (@_GHSofficial) June 22, 2022
The course of the illness typically progresses from “dry†symptoms initially (such as fever, aches and pains, and fatigue), and then progresses to “wet†symptoms (such as diarrhoea and vomiting) as the person becomes sicker.
Primary signs and symptoms of Ebola often include some or several of the following:
Fever, Aches and pains, such as severe headache and muscle and joint pain, Weakness and fatigue, Sore throat, Loss of appetite, Gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and vomiting, unexplained haemorrhaging, bleeding or bruising.
Viral news suggesting a possible Ebola outbreak in the northern parts of Ghana is untrue, theindependentghana can confirm.
Reports that made rounds on online news portals and social media platforms had it that Ebola, a deadly virus, had broken out in the northern part of Ghana, but the Ghana Health Service(GHS) refuted those claims.
The Service, in a tweet, urged the general public to disregard such reports.
About Ebola
The Ebola Virus Disease, also known as EVD, is a highly contagious illness that can be fatal in both humans and nonhuman primates.
It was first described in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since then, the virus has emerged periodically and infected people in several African countries.
Symptoms of the virus may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after contact with the virus, with an average of 8 to 10 days. The course of the illness typically progresses from “dry†symptoms initially (such as fever, aches and pains, and fatigue), and then progresses to “wet†symptoms (such as diarrhoea and vomiting) as the person becomes sicker.
Primary signs and symptoms of Ebola often include some or several of the following Fever, Aches and pains, such as severe headache and muscle and joint pain, Weakness and fatigue, Sore throat, Loss of appetite, Gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and vomiting. Unexplained haemorrhaging, bleeding or bruising. Other symptoms may include red eyes, skin rash, and hiccups (late-stage).
The Ghana Health Service has issued a disclaimer on the news that the country has recorded cases of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), allaying the fears of many.
In a tweet on its official Twitter handle, the GHS stated that Ghana has not recorded any case of the EVD as has been recorded by some news outlets.
Earlier, it had issued a notice to all regional directors of health and chief executive officers of the various teaching hospitals about the re-emergence of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa.
This followed the news of seven cases of the viral disease confirmed in West African country, Guinea, on Sunday, February 14. Three of the cases recorded there were reported to have died.
As a result, the Director-General of the Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, charged all health facilities “to initiate preparedness and response plans for EVDâ€.
But, this information seemed to have been misintepreted to mean that Ghana had also recorded a case of the EVD.
To reassure the public, the GHS stated in the tweet that, “Ghana has not recorded any case of Ebola Virus DIsease (EVD). However, the country is on high alert after Guinea, a West African neighbor, confirmed seven cases of EVD.”
They have therefore asked all to disregard the false information.
“Disregard the news circulating that Ghana has confirmed a case,” it concluded.
Showing early symptoms of hemorrhagic fever, the patient sits quietly on her bed, wrangling two toddlers desperate to flee the cell-like hospital room in Ingende, a remote town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They are waiting for the results of a test for Ebola.
The patient can only communicate with her relatives through a clear plastic observation window. Her identity is secret, to protect her from being ostracized by locals fearful of Ebola infection. Her children have also been tested but, for now, show no symptoms.
There is a vaccine and a treatment for Ebola, which have brought down the rate at which it kills.
But the question at the back of everyone’s mind is: What if this woman doesn’t have Ebola? What if, instead, she is patient zero of “Disease X,” the first known infection of a new pathogen that could sweep the world as fast as Covid-19, but one that has Ebola’s 50% to 90% fatality rate?
“Disease X” is hypothetical for now, an outbreak that scientists and public health experts fear could lead to serious disease around the world if and when it occurs, according to WHO. “X” stands for unexpected.
This isn’t the stuff of science fiction. It’s a scientific fear, based on scientific facts.
“We’ve all got to be frightened,” the patient’s physician, Dr. Dadin Bonkole, said. “Ebola was unknown. Covid was unknown. We have to be afraid of new diseases.”
Humanity faces an unknown number of new and potentially fatal viruses emerging from Africa’s tropical rainforests, according to Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976 and has been on the frontline of the hunt for new pathogens ever since.
“We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out,” he told CNN. “And that’s what constitutes a threat for humanity.”
As a young researcher, Muyembe took the first blood samples from the victims of a mysterious disease that caused hemorrhages and killed about 88% of patients and 80% of the staff who were working at the Yambuku Mission Hospital when the disease was first discovered.
The vials of blood were sent to Belgium and the US, where scientists found a worm-shaped virus. They called it “Ebola,” after the river close to the outbreak in the country that was then known as Zaire.
The identification of Ebola relied on a chain that connected the most remote parts of Africa’s rainforests to high-tech laboratories in the West.
Now, the West must rely on African scientists in the Congo and elsewhere to act as the sentinels to warn against future diseases.
In Ingende, the fears of encountering a new, deadly, virus remained very real even after the recovery of the patient showing symptoms that looked like Ebola. Her samples were tested on-site and sent on to the Congo’s National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa, where they were further tested for other diseases with similar symptoms. All came back negative, the illness that affected her remains a mystery.
Speaking exclusively to CNN in the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, Muyembe warned of many more zoonotic diseases — those that jump from animals to humans — to come.
Yellow fever, various forms of influenza, rabies, brucellosis and Lyme disease are among those that pass from animals to humans, often via a vector such as a rodent or an insect.
The Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday declared the end of the country’s latest Ebola epidemic after the outbreak killed 55 people over the past five months.
“I am happy to solemnly declare the end of the 11th epidemic of the Ebola virus in Equateur province” in the vast country’s northwest, Health Minister Eteni Longondo told journalists.
The World Health Organization said the latest outbreak had killed 55 people among 119 confirmed and 11 probable cases since it began in June.
The outbreak was “the longest, most complex and deadliest” in the 60-year history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Minister Eteni Longondo said.
It has only been surpassed by the 2013-16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa that killed 11,300 people.
DR CONGO declares end to latest Ebola epidemic that killed 55 people, this comes 50 days after the last case was reported.https://t.co/Xo1AfUQInv
In May 2015, after a torturous battle with the most-deadliest outbreak of Ebola for 14 months, Liberians were finally able to dance in the streets after being officially declared Ebola-free, and this was all thanks to the gallant men and women, including health workers and then, of course, Saah Joseph.
The popular legislator from Montserrado County joined the front line of the fight against Ebola, having already imported six second-hand ambulances from the U.S. He recruited a team of drivers and then took Ebola patients to hospital and treatment units.
At times, he drove the ambulances himself, relieving the suffering of patients or suspected ones by taking them to Ebola centers to be treated. Indeed, the relentless politician became the lifeline for victims of the disease considering the inadequate health facilities in the West African nation, which counted only a dozen ambulances at the time. These private and government ambulances were mostly just cars or trucks having makeshift sirens, according to a report.
And that was largely why Joseph imported his first six ambulances from central California in February, paying $10,000 for the delivery of the first two and getting $20,000 assistance from another legislator for the others.
His ambulances were to originally serve his constituents in New Georgia suffering common illnesses, but then Ebola struck in six weeks after the ambulances hit the streets of Monrovia. Soon, Joseph and his medical team became one of the first responders on the Ebola frontline, facing the virus at a time many were confused and scared.
With his personal mobile number pasted on his ambulances, his phone buzzed many times in a day by people with Ebola-like symptoms seeking help. As of October 2014, Joseph and his team had transported 3,000 patients, including Ebola dead bodies to the cemetery or crematorium.
By the time Liberians won the war against the disease, Joseph had earned the deserved title of “Ebola Hero†and been recognised by top government officials including then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
“You and your team braved the storm when doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, as well as our citizens, were dying in their numbers. “You are a true hero of our country,†Sirleaf said of the patriotic politician at the time.
Joseph did not only save lives in his home country but in Sierra Leone as well, turning his attention to the country when it also went through an Ebola crisis. Media reports indicated that Joseph liaised with the Liberian government to send several ambulances and other equipment to help fight the virus in the neighbouring West African country.
The WHO said its emergency committee would meet Tuesday to discuss whether the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo still constitutes an international health emergency, after fresh cases were detected.
The meeting comes a day after DR Congo had been expected to announce that the outbreak in the east of the country that began in August 2018 was over.
The epidemic has killed 2,276 people to date. For it to be declared over, there have to be no new cases reported for 42 days—double the incubation period.
But as the World Health Organization’s emergency committee met last Friday to determine whether its declaration of a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern, or PHEIC, could be lifted, a new case was reported.
“We now have three cases, two people who have died, one person who is alive,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters in a virtual briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
She said that all of the contacts of those cases had been traced and vaccinated and were being followed closely.
DR Congo health authorities announced Friday that a 26-year-old man was listed as having died from the disease, and a young girl who was being treated in the same health centre passed away on Sunday.
Both died in the city of Beni, epicentre of the outbreak.
Due to the shifting situation, the WHO decided to reconvene its emergency committee to again evaluate whether or not the outbreak still constitutes an international health emergency, Harris said.
It was scheduled to announce its decision later Tuesday.
The DR Congo has meanwhile started a new 42-day countdown to declare an end to its 10th epidemic of the deadly haemorrhagic fever disease.
Few days before the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo was to be declared over, the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that a new case has been confirmed.
Over 3,400 people have been infected and 2,200 have died since the outbreak was announced in DR Congo nearly two years away.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described this as a “milestone†for the four countries.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “the approval of the Ebola vaccine by these countries is another milestone in the fight against this unforgiving disease.”
“Africa has rallied to cement hard-fought progress to keep its people safe from Ebola,” he added.
The four countries are Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Zambia.
The vaccine is called Ervebo vaccine. It was manufactured by Merck.
Preliminary study results show that the vaccine has 97.5% efficacy rate.
Data also suggests that vaccinating people who are already infected reduces their chances of dying.
DR Congo is currently battling an Ebola outbreak which has killed 2,249 people since August 2018.
Four African countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Ghana and Zambia – have licensed and can now distribute an Ebola vaccine, which the World Heath Organization (WHO) has hailed as a “milestone”.
Preliminary study results indicate the Ervebo vaccine, manufactured by Merck, has a 97.5% efficacy rate. Data also suggests that vaccinating people who are already infected reduces their chances of dying.
DR Congo is currently battling an Ebola outbreak which has killed 2,249 people since August 2018.
“The approval of the Ebola vaccine by these countries is another milestone in the fight against this unforgiving disease,” said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Africa has rallied to cement hard-fought progress to keep its people safe from Ebola,” he added
