The slow action against the Ebola that plagues Uganda

When an Ebola outbreak swept through central Uganda in late September, government officials were willing to do anything to contain the virus, short of taking one crucial step: imposing a lockdown.

This was radically different from their response during the onset of Covid, when Uganda introduced some of the most restrictive lockdowns in Africa by closing borders, banning public transport and closing schools for two years – one of the longest lockdowns in the world.

Officials in Uganda, a landlocked nation in East Africa, now acknowledge they hesitated to impose similar restrictions in the recent Ebola outbreak out of lingering anger over strict Covid measures. They worried that another ironclad response to an epidemic could spark protests, hit a strained economy and alienate a weary population.

The initial decision not to confine the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak now haunts Uganda. The disease has spread to nine districts, including the capital, Kampala. The World Health Organization reported 142 confirmed cases and 55 deaths.

The outbreak, the country’s deadliest in more than 20 years, has now largely abated and no new Ebola infections have been reported recently. But those affected wonder if all the pain could have been avoided.

Among those who died was 12-year-old Ssebiranda Isaiah Victor, whose relatives gathered one recent afternoon for a memorial service in Nakaziba, their village.

The family lived in Kampala, and the boy’s father, Ssekiranda Fred, said his son had contracted the virus from a neighbor’s son who came from Kassanda, one of the districts at the center of the outbreak. “I miss you, my son,” said Fred. “He was so bright, a dreamer.”

On October 15, almost a month after the first case was reported, President Yoweri Museveni announced a curfew and restricted movement in and out of Mubende and Kassanda, the districts where the outbreak was concentrated. By then, the virus had spread to the capital.

“They were really determined to no more lockdowns because they knew there was no public trust,” a Western official said. But with the virus in Kampala, the official said, “they felt pressured to do it.”

Multiple corruption cases related to the coronavirus pandemic have also eroded citizens’ trust.

Days after Fred lost one of his four children to Ebola, his wife, Nakku Martha, succumbed to the virus. “Ebola could have wiped us all out,” she said, teary-eyed as she walked around her son’s grave. “But we survived and we remain hopeful.”

By: ABDI LATIF DAHIR