KAMPALA — Uganda mentioned on Monday it was anticipating to declare an finish to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged late final 12 months and has claimed the lives of at the very least 56 individuals.
If no new case is reported by Tuesday, the well being ministry mentioned it could formally announce the top of the outbreak on Wednesday.
According to the World Health Organization, an outbreak of the illness ends when there are not any new circumstances for 42 consecutive days—twice the incubation interval of Ebola.
Health ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona mentioned in an invite to journalists that the “declaration ceremony” will happen within the central district of Mubende, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Since the Ugandan authorities declared the newest outbreak in Mubende on September 20, the East African nation has registered 142 confirmed circumstances and 56 deaths, with the illness spreading to the capital Kampala.
The final confirmed affected person was discharged from hospital on November 30, in line with well being officers.
The outbreak has been brought on by the Sudan pressure of the virus, for which there’s at the moment no vaccine.
But three candidate vaccines—one developed by Oxford University and the Jenner Institute in Britain, one other from the Sabin Vaccine Institute within the United States, and a 3rd from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)—are being trialed in Uganda.
Ebola is an usually deadly viral hemorrhagic fever. The illness is known as after a river in Democratic Republic of Congo the place it was found in 1976.
Human transmission is thru physique fluids, with the principle signs being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea.
Outbreaks are tough to include, particularly in city environments.
People who’re contaminated don’t change into contagious till signs seem, which is after an incubation interval of between two and 21 days.
Uganda, which shares a porous border with the DRC, has skilled a number of Ebola outbreaks, most just lately in 2019 when at the very least 5 individuals died.
The worst epidemic in West Africa between 2013 and 2016 killed greater than 11,300 individuals alone. The DRC has had greater than a dozen epidemics, the deadliest claiming the lives of two,280 individuals in 2020. — Agence France-Presse
