KAMPALA, Uganda—Uganda’s Ebola outbreak is over, the country’s health ministry said Wednesday, capping a nearly four-month struggle to contain a rare strain of the highly contagious virus for which there are no proven vaccines or antiviral treatments.
Uganda’s Health Ministry said 42 days had passed since the last known patient diagnosed with the Sudan strain of Ebola was discharged from a hospital, taking the country beyond twice the virus’s maximum incubation period. Fifty-five people are confirmed to have died from the virus since September in the second-deadliest known Ebola outbreak in Uganda’s history, while at least 142 were infected. The ministry said another 22 people are believed to have died from the virus as far back as early August, but were never tested.
Strained by steep budget cuts due in part to the expense of responding to the coronavirus pandemic, Uganda’s healthcare system struggled to contain Ebola infections in the early months of the outbreak. Trainee doctors and other health workers went on strike complaining about delayed salaries and a lack of protective equipment.
The World Health Organization, which sent dozens of health workers as well as medical supplies and equipment to support the response, hailed Uganda for combating the outbreak, especially in the absence of vaccines or therapeutics.
“Health authorities worked intensely, ramping up outbreak control measures that helped to halt the virus in less than four months,” said Patrick Otim, who oversaw the WHO’s outbreak response. “Evidence-based decision-making, partnerships and collaboration between the government, its partners, health workers and the community have been key success factors in the response.”
The virus was first detected in the central farming district of Mubende in September and spread to at least nine different districts, including Kampala, Uganda’s capital of 3 million residents. Health officials were concerned that the virus could spill into neighboring Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose economies, already some of the poorest in the world, are struggling to recover from pandemic-related disruptions and the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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