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Uganda Confirms Sudan Strain Ebola Outbreak in Kampala

Healthcare

Business Honor
31 January, 2025

Uganda confirms an outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola in Kampala, with the first patient dying on January 29, 2025.

The government of Uganda has confirmed an outbreak of the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus in its capital, Kampala. The first confirmed patient died from the disease on January 29, 2025. The health ministry announced the fatality on Thursday. The patient was a male nurse at the Mulago National Referral Hospital, who had visited several facilities for treatment, including Mulago and a traditional healer, after developing fever-like symptoms. The patient was treated, but he died from multi-organ failure at the hospital. Samples taken post-mortem confirmed the Sudan strain of Ebola.

There were 44 contacts identified by the ministry for tracing, including 30 health workers. But Kampala, which has over 4 million people and is the prime transit point for travelers from such neighboring countries like South Sudan, Congo, and Rwanda among others, proves to be a headache in contact tracing.

Ebola is a highly infectious hemorrhagic fever that is transmitted by contact with the body fluids or tissues of infected individuals. Fever, vomiting blood, muscle pain, and bleeding are symptoms of Ebola. In Uganda, this is the ninth Ebola outbreak since the first was reported in 2000. The most recent case erupted in 2022 from 143 infections, killed 55 individuals, and was brought to an end in January 2023.

The World Health Organization has allocated $1 million from its contingency fund to support containment efforts, including sending candidate vaccines for the Sudan strain. There is no approved vaccine for this specific strain, but Uganda received trial vaccine doses during the last outbreak. Vaccinations for all contacts of the deceased will begin immediately.