Congratulations to Uganda, Ebola Outbreak Over

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#Uganda, January 11, 2023 – After three and a half months the Ebola outbreak in Uganda was officially declared over on Wednesday January 4th and the country is crediting its citizens in part for the swift turnaround.  The announcement came from the Ugandan Ministry of Health in a press release shared by the World Health Organization.

“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,” explained Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Acero, Uganda’s Minister of Health.

The WHO had officially declared an Ebola outbreak caused by the Sudan Ebola virus on September 20th 2022. The Sudan Ebola virus has no vaccines or therapies that work against it yet. On Wednesday Acero explained that to tackle it the county had also increased key control measures ‘such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection, prevention and control’.

The outbreak was particularly deadly with 47 percent of the 164 affected individuals succumbing to the illness.

The WHO praised the county for the swift and effective response despite the challenges.  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said, “I congratulate Uganda for its robust and comprehensive response which has resulted in today’s victory over Ebola. Uganda has shown that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together.”

The outbreak saw advancements in several medicines including three vaccines being adapted to work against the Sudan Ebola virus for inclusion in clinical trials.