Deadly infectious disease – Ebola in Uganda is defeated – for now – News


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Breathe a sigh of relief in Uganda: After 42 days without infection, the government can declare the Ebola outbreak over.

The first Ebola case was detected in Uganda almost five months ago. A total of 55 people have died since being infected with the virus. 142 infections were confirmed. Now the authorities can give the all-clear because no one has contracted Ebola for 42 days.

The period includes twice the incubation period of the infectious disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an Ebola outbreak can be declared over as soon as the relevant period has expired.

Lockdown for affected provinces

The first Ebola virus infection in Uganda was reported on September 20th. “The authorities reacted surprisingly relaxed at the time,” recalls SRF Africa correspondent Samuel Burri. “It seemed to me that it was downplayed a bit.” He suspects that with a view to the important tourism industry, they did not want to become alarmed.

Initially, Ebola cases were only found in two provinces of the East African country. “When cases appeared in other areas – including the capital Kampala – a lockdown was decided for the two affected provinces,” says Burri.

This is how an Ebola disease develops


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Legend:

Behavior instructions to the population in Uganda (autumn 2022).

Keystone/EPO

The incubation period for Ebola typically lasts between two and 21 days. The onset of the disease is characterized by high fever, sore throat, muscle pain, abdominal pain and headache, accompanied by diarrhea and a poor general condition. If the course is severe, severe bleeding and failure of vital organs (e.g. liver and kidneys) or cardiopulmonary shock can also occur. Mortality depends on the virus type and ranges from 0 percent (Reston virus) to 90 percent (Zaire virus). Treatment is limited to controlling symptoms. (Source: Federal Office of Public Health, FOPH).

The correspondent estimates that this radical measure also raised people’s awareness. Burri himself was in one of the provinces just before the lockdown. At the time, he could not find any signs that there was an Ebola outbreak. “It took a while before everyone realized the seriousness of the situation and until the health workers were also equipped with protective suits.”

The African continent has had traumatic experiences with the virus. Especially recently: from 2014 to 2016, 11,300 people died from the disease, most of them in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. After the devastating Ebola outbreak, African countries coordinated their efforts to counter the virus.

Vaccine development under pressure

The Sudan variant of the virus broke out in Uganda. This had not been found in humans since 2012. In contrast to the more common Zaire variant, there is still no tested vaccine against the variant. New vaccines were developed under high pressure.

“The first experimental vaccines came into the country at the beginning of December,” says Burri. “But at that point there were no new cases. So there are still no tested vaccines available against the Sudan variant.”

Ring vaccination against Ebola


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In the case of Ebola, not the entire population is vaccinated, but the contact persons of infected people and the health workers are generally vaccinated. This strategy is called ring vaccination. First, a new Ebola case is identified as such. From this, all people who have contact with this case are identified and vaccinated – family, neighbors, work colleagues and so on. This ring is expanded to include those people who have come into contact with the contact persons – that can be another 50 to 100 people. They too are immunized.

In retrospect, the Ebola outbreak in Uganda was tricky because it didn’t take place in a remote area but in a busy city. There was also a lack of protective suits for medical staff to protect against the highly contagious virus. “Ultimately, Uganda has not lost control of this outbreak. Also because most of the patients behaved responsibly,” says Burri.

But Uganda also has a better health system than neighboring Congo. There was an Ebola outbreak from 2018 to 2019 that killed thousands. “But of course you have to be careful in Uganda and in other African countries,” concludes Burri. “Because the Ebola pathogen is still there. It is transmitted from animals to humans – which is why the disease can reappear at any time.”

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