Authorities have counted 19 deaths so far. There is currently no vaccination against the virus variant of this outbreak.
A worker disinfects a house in Mubende – the place where the recent outbreak began.
In East Africa, nervousness is growing over an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, which reached the city of Kampala this week. Uganda’s capital has direct flight connections to Europe, the Middle East and around a dozen African countries. The Ugandan authorities have so far counted 58 cases and 19 fatalities, this week the first death in Kampala became known. The number of victims is likely to be higher, 20 more deaths are rated as a “probable” result of Ebola.
The authorities monitor loudly in the capital media reports also several suspected cases, nationwide over 1000 people are under observation after contact with infected people.
“October will be tricky”
The first cases were detected in September in Mubende district, 150 kilometers west of Kampala, in a community of miners. The first known dead was a 24-year-old man, six members of his family also died. Among the victims so far are three nurses and a doctor.
The Ebola variant circulating in Uganda is known as the Sudan strain. There is currently no approved vaccine for this, unlike the Zaire strain, which has been responsible for outbreaks in Congo-Kinshasa and West Africa in recent years. But two vaccine candidates are relatively advanced, and World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday clinical trials could begin within weeks.
The Ugandan authorities have called on the population to avoid crowds such as funerals, weddings and parties. According to that “British Medical Journal” In some schools in Mubende, around half of the pupils are absent from class.
The authorities have also set up emergency teams and isolation centers, and a task force originally set up in 2000 has been reactivated. It consists of doctors and nurses from various institutions, including the military.
Samuel Oledo, president of the Uganda Doctors’ Association, is optimistic over the phone that the outbreak can be stopped within a few months. “October will be tricky,” he says, adding that the numbers are increasing due to previously undetected cases. However, Olede hopes that the numbers will already be falling in November and that the outbreak can be ended by February. For this, Uganda is dependent on international help, including donations of protective equipment.
Nevertheless, international concern is growing. The US government announced last week that travelers who had been in Uganda in the three weeks before entering Uganda would have to undergo a check at one of five selected airports.
The seventh outbreak in Uganda since 2000
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids. The virus is significantly less contagious than the airborne coronavirus, but much more deadly. In previous Ebola outbreaks, around half of all those infected died. Symptoms are fever, vomiting, diarrhea or bleeding, and death occurs from organ failure.
Ebola outbreaks have been regular since the 1970s, the most severe of which claimed more than 11,000 lives in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia between 2014 and 2016. Back then, many victims initially became infected during burial rituals that included washing the corpse.
The current outbreak in Uganda is the seventh in the east African country since 2000. At that time, 425 people became infected and 224 died.