Africa’s top public health body has said Uganda’s Ebola outbreak is under control as it has been 39 days since the last confirmed case of the virus was reported in the country.
The acting director of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, told a press conference on Thursday that “if no new cases are reported in Uganda by January 10, the epidemic would be over”.
Officials first confirmed the outbreak in September and said “it was the Sudanese strain of the disease, for which there is no proven vaccine”.
In December 2022, Uganda discharged its last known Ebola patient from hospital and President Yoweri Museveni lifted all Ebola-related movement restrictions.
Ouma praised Uganda’s excellent coordination of Ebola containment measures, saying it took around 70 days to bring the outbreak under control with 142 confirmed cases and 55 deaths.
APS