Africa-Press – Angola. The Ebola outbreak declared on 20 September in Uganda now has 48 confirmed cases, including 17 deaths, announced the Ministry of Health.
According to the latest data, released on Monday night by the Ugandan authorities in a statement, in the last seven days, there have been seven deaths and four cases.
“Among health professionals, there were nine confirmed cases”, according to the authorities, who have already completed the 21-day follow-up of 35% of the 1,049 people identified as contacts of Ebola patients.
Last week, the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda, Yonas Tegegn, explained that the country is working to import two types of vaccines, although their effectiveness against the Sudan strain, responsible for this outbreak.
One of the vaccines was developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in the United States, while the second candidate was developed by researchers at the University of OXFORD in the United Kingdom.
“Right now, Ugandan and international scientists are working to distribute these vaccines in Uganda. But we still don’t have enough data to be able to distribute them on a large scale and, in addition, supplies are scarce,” Tegegn said at a press conference. virtual on Thursday.
Contrary to what happens with the Zaire strain, recorded in Ebola epidemics in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), there is still no approved vaccine for the Sudan strain.
Ugandan authorities announced on 23 September the death of a 24-year-old man from Ebola in central Mubende, the first since 2019.
The outbreak already affects five districts in the center and west of the country, Tegegn said. Uganda has previously reported outbreaks of Ebola, a disease that has killed thousands of people across Africa since its discovery in 1976 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Human transmission is through bodily fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea. Infected people only become contagious after the onset of symptoms, after an incubation period ranging from two to 21 days.
The disease has six different strains, three of which (Bundibugyo, Sudan, Zaire) have already caused major epidemics. The Sudan strain is the least transmissible and has the lowest mortality rate.
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