Uganda has confirmed an Ebola outbreak in its capital, Kampala, with one person dead from the virus, the Ministry of Health announced. This marks the country’s ninth Ebola outbreak since the first case was recorded in 2000.
The victim, a male nurse at Mulago National Referral Hospital, had sought treatment at several health facilities, including Mulago, and also consulted a traditional healer after developing symptoms such as fever. He passed away on January 29 after suffering multi-organ failure. Post-mortem tests confirmed he was infected with the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus.
Health authorities have identified 44 individuals who had contact with the deceased, including 30 healthcare workers, and are tracking them for monitoring. Contact tracing may be difficult due to the dense population of over 4 million people in Kampala, a city that is also a major transit point for travelers to South Sudan, Congo, and Rwanda.
Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids and tissue from an infected person and causes symptoms like headache, vomiting blood, muscle pain, and bleeding. The World Health Organization (WHO) has allocated $1 million from its emergency fund to support containment efforts and is working to distribute trial vaccines.
Uganda’s health system has built up substantial capacity over the years to manage Ebola outbreaks, using measures such as contact tracing, laboratory testing, and patient care. Vaccination efforts for contacts of the deceased will begin immediately, though there is no approved vaccine for the Sudan strain of the virus. Some trial vaccine doses were made available during the last outbreak.
