The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC ) on Thursday said the Ebola outbreak in Uganda was “not getting out of hand” and that it was still under control, despite a rapid spike in case numbers that have spread to the capital Kampala, reported The Reuters.
“The Ebola outbreak in Uganda is not getting out of hand it is still under control,” Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the Africa CDC, said at an online briefing.
Ouma also said that currently it was not possible to project anything about the future spread of the disease. The Ugandan government officially confirmed the Ebola virus outbreak on September 20 in Mubende District, which is located 145km from Kampala. The virus currently circulating in the country is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which no proven vaccine has been made available, unlike the more common Zaire strain traced during recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
On Wednesday, Uganda’s Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said the number of confirmed Ebola cases has risen to 109 and the outbreak has claimed 30 lives. He said at least 15 people are now confirmed to have been infected with Ebola in the capital Kampala. He added that the government has boosted efforts to control the outbreak and was setting up an additional treatment centre.
Earlier this month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni only announced a three-week lockdown in two of the most-affected districts and put Kampala, the capital city, on high alert in a bid to contain the virus.
It is the fifth time Uganda has experienced an Ebola outbreak since the turn of the century. An outbreak in the year 2000 killed more than 200 people.
In related news, the Africa CDC has also announced that it is working with the Rwanda Red Cross in the implementation of the Saving Lives and Livelihoods (SLL) Program, an initiative aimed at supporting vaccination efforts.
