The outbreak is serious because it derives from a Sudanese variety that is lethal for between 25 and 90% of those affected due to the lack of approved medicines and vaccines.
A person infected with the Ebola virus died earlier this month at the Kiruddu National Referral Hospital in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. The outbreak, which began on September 20 in Mubende, 80 kilometers west of the city, has reached the country’s largest city, with a metropolitan area of more than 3.6 million inhabitants.
Detection services have identified 42 contacts of the deceased, an individual from an affected area who traveled around the country, hiding his identity, to be attended by a healer. The worsening of his condition led to his admission to the medical center where the death occurred.
The dimensions of the problem are not fully disclosed. “There are more than 70 cases scattered in three or four districts and this means that there is already community transmission,” says Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, director of the Emergency Unit of Doctors Without Borders, who recently visited the former English colony. “An active search is being carried out, but there are a hundred to check,” he alleges and explains that the NGO has set up two treatment centers with about 40 beds each. “We are in a difficult moment,” he confesses. “The only advantage is that Uganda has a relatively strong health system.”
The danger stems both from their arrival in densely populated areas and their inclusion in the human flows through Uganda, a country that serves as a gateway between the center of the continent and the ports of East Africa. In addition, it hosts 1.5 million refugees, the majority from South Sudan. “We hope that it does not happen to that country, where suspicious cases have been found,” he says.
A 24-year-old man was the first fatality of the epidemic, located in Mubende, and who subsequently claimed the lives of six members of his family. At the beginning of the emergency, the health authorities requested the isolation of the affected territory, but Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni objected, claiming that it was not a disease with repercussions similar to Covid-19. The leader rejected any confinement or closure of schools or churches, claiming that the fight against Ebola was “very easy” and encouraged citizens to wash their hands as the main preventive measure.
The deceased in Kampala is the nineteenth and official statistics speak of 54 cases, of which twenty have recovered, including five doctors. The seriousness of the outbreak derives from the fact that it is not the Zaire strain, which affected the Congo and the Gulf of Guinea, but rather the Sudanese variety, which is lethal for between 25 and 90% of those affected because It lacks approved drugs and vaccines, although several studies are underway. Infection occurs from body fluids from patients and contaminated environments.
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