Uganda has declared the end of an Ebola outbreak caused by Sudan ebolavirus, just four months after the first case was confirmed in the country’s central Mubende district on September 20, 2022. The country’s Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Acero, praised the swift response to the outbreak, which included surveillance, contact tracing, and infection prevention and control measures. In total, there were 164 cases of the disease (142 confirmed and 22 probable), with 55 confirmed deaths and 87 recovered patients. The case-fatality ratio was 47%.
This was the country’s first Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in a decade, and the fifth overall outbreak of this type of Ebola in Uganda. Health authorities showed strong political commitment and implemented accelerated public health actions, including restricting movement in hot-spot communities of Mubende and Kasanda.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), praised Uganda’s comprehensive response to the outbreak, stating that it “has shown that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together.” WHO and partners supported the Ugandan health authorities from the outset of the outbreak, deploying experts, providing training, and building isolation and treatment centers.
The outbreak was caused by the Sudan ebolavirus, one of six species of the Ebola virus for which there are currently no therapeutics or vaccines approved. However, Uganda’s long experience in responding to epidemics allowed the country to rapidly strengthen critical areas of the response and overcome the lack of these key tools.
Soon after the outbreak was declared over, WHO worked with a large range of partners, including vaccine developers, researchers, donors, and the Ugandan health authorities to identify candidate therapeutics and vaccines for inclusion in trials. Three candidate vaccines were identified, and over 5,000 doses were sent to the country in December. WHO Representative in Uganda, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, said that while these candidate vaccines were not used during this outbreak, they will be used in future outbreaks.