Following a completion of 42 days with no active cases, Uganda has today declared the end of a nearly four-month Ebola outbreak that briefly ravaged part of the eastern part of the country.
Uganda struggled to contain the outbreak but with deliberate efforts that included lockdowns was then able to swiftly bring it under control despite the absence of a proven vaccine against this viral strain.
“We have successfully controlled the spread of Ebola in Uganda,” Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said during a ceremony to mark the outbreak’s end.
Aceng said this was Uganda’s eighth Ebola outbreak since 2000, when the country recorded its first and most deadly one that killed more than half of the 425 people it infected.
The latest outbreak killed 55 of the 143 people infected since September, according to health ministry figures. Six of the fatalities were health workers.
Wednesday’s declaration followed Uganda’s completion of 42 days with no active cases, which represents two full incubation periods of the virus.
The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, praised Uganda for its response to the virus.
“Uganda has shown that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together, from having an alert system in place, to finding and caring for people affected and their contacts, to gaining the full participation of affected communities in the response,” he said in a statement.
The revelation has excited many stakeholders including those in the tourism sector who were hit hard when the epidemic was declared in the country in September last year.
Speaking about the declaration, the spokesperson of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), Mr Simplicious Gessa, said after the Ebola outbreak, the country was considered an unsafe destination.
“Unlike Covid-19 which was global, Ebola singled out Uganda as unsafe with other destinations having a very unfair advantage. We experienced a number of cancellations of tourists with many losses registered from tour operators and hoteliers as a result of Ebola” Mr Gessa said.
“The Ebola-free status is a very welcome relief to the sector because the impact of Ebola has been huge. It is time to tell the good news and do aggressive marketing and awareness about the amazingly beautiful country, Uganda. UTB plans to work with the private sector to combine efforts in resuscitating the sector,” he added.
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