An outbreak of Ebola has been declared in Uganda after health authorities confirmed a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain, the government and the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
“We want to inform the country that we have an outbreak of Ebola, which we confirmed yesterday,” Diana Atwine, the health ministry’s permanent secretary, told a news conference on Tuesday.
The patient with the confirmed case, a 24-year-old man in Uganda’s central Mubende district, showed symptoms and later died.
Atwine said the man had a high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and was vomiting blood. He had initially been treated for malaria.
There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility, the WHO’s Africa office said in a statement, adding that it was helping Uganda’s health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.
“Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. Thanks to its expertise, action has been taken to quickly detect the virus, and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections,” Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Africa’s regional director, said.
The WHO said there had been seven previous outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.
It said Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola Zaire strain in 2019.
