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KAMPALA: Uganda has confirmed an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the capital, Kampala, with the first confirmed patient dying from it on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said.
It is the East African country’s ninth outbreak since it recorded its first viral disease infection in 2000.
The patient, a male nurse at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, had initially sought treatment at various facilities, including Mulago, as well as with a traditional healer, after developing fever-like symptoms.
“The patient experienced multi-organ failure and succumbed to the illness at Mulago National Referral Hospital on Jan. 29. Post-mortem samples confirmed the Sudan Ebola Virus Disease (strain),” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said 44 contacts of the deceased man have been listed for tracing, including 30 health workers.
However, contact tracing could be challenging as Kampala, where the latest Ebola infection cropped up, is a crowded city of over 4 million people and a crossroads for traffic to South Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, and other countries.
The highly infectious hemorrhagic fever is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue. Symptoms include headache, vomiting of blood, muscle pains, and bleeding.
Ugandan authorities have used capacities built up over the years, such as laboratory testing, patient care know-how, contact tracing, and other skills, to bring recent Ebola outbreaks under control in relatively short order.
Uganda last suffered an outbreak in late 2022, declared over on Jan. 11, 2023, after nearly four months in which it struggled to contain the viral infection.
The last outbreak killed 55 of the 143 people infected, and the dead included six health workers.
The ministry said the patient had also sought treatment at a public hospital in Mbale, 240 km east of Kampala, near the border with Kenya.
Vaccination against Ebola for all contacts of the deceased will begin immediately, the ministry said.
There is currently no approved vaccine for the Sudan strain of Ebola, though Uganda received some trial vaccine doses during the last outbreak.
An outbreak of Marburg, a cousin of Ebola, was declared in Tanzania last week.