Uganda has confirmed an outbreak of the Ebola virus in its capital city, Kampala, with one person already dead. This is the country’s ninth Ebola outbreak since 2000. The patient, a male nurse at Mulago National Referral Hospital, initially sought treatment from various facilities and a traditional healer before succumbing to the illness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has allocated $1 million to support efforts to contain the outbreak. WHO is also working with developers to send out candidate vaccines. Uganda previously experienced an Ebola outbreak in 2022 that killed 55 of the 143 people infected.
Contact tracing for the deceased man’s contacts is underway, involving 44 health workers and others. Vaccination against Ebola will begin immediately for all contacts, although there is currently no approved vaccine for the Sudan strain of Ebola. Nearby countries, including Tanzania and Rwanda, have recently experienced outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/uganda-confirms-outbreak-ebola-capital-kampala-2025-01-30