Ebola outbreak in Uganda declared finished by officials
Jack Birle
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Uganda announced its latest outbreak of Ebola, which resulted in 55 deaths, has ended after nearly four months.
Officials declared an end to the outbreak after 42 days elapsed since the last patient was released from care on Nov. 30, 2022.
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“Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection, prevention and control,” Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, Uganda’s minister of health, said in a statement. “While we expanded our efforts to put a strong response in place across the nine affected districts, the magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak, and took action.”
The World Health Organization said during the outbreak there were 164 cases, 142 of which were confirmed and 22 of which were probable, while more than 4,000 people came into contact with someone who got the disease.
“With no vaccines and therapeutics, this was one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks in the past five years, but Uganda stayed the course and continuously fine-tuned its response,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement. “Two months ago, it looked as if Ebola would cast a dark shadow over the country well into 2023, as the outbreak reached major cities such as Kampala and Jinja, but this win starts off the year on a note of great hope for Africa.”
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The 2014 to 2016 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa was caused by the Zaire ebolavirus, leading to 28,652 suspected, probable, or confirmed cases and 11,325 deaths worldwide, per the CDC. The United States had four confirmed cases, with one death, during that outbreak.