Uganda: Three questions for an MSF (Doctors Without Borders) epidemiologist about the new Ebolavirus variant
December 13, 2022
It has been over two weeks since the last confirmed Ebola case—a stillborn baby of a mother who survived the disease—was reported in Uganda. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been responding to the rare outbreak of the Sudan Ebolavirus variant since it was declared on September 20 by building Ebola treatment centers and treatment units, providing support to the Ugandan Ministry of Health for case management in these facilities, and conducting community outreach activities like health promotion and infection protection and control measures in health facilities where known patients went prior to diagnosis.
What is the current trend of the outbreak in Uganda?
In terms of trends, we saw two important peaks in the outbreak. The first one was in September in the Mubende district, which was the first epicenter of this outbreak, and then another in the neighboring district of Kassanda. While cases in these two districts alone represent 80 percent of all cases detected so far in this outbreak, a total of nine districts in the country were affected. Historically, this is the largest geographic spread of Ebola that Uganda has ever faced.
After a steep rise of cases in October (86 cases over 4 weeks), the outbreak slowed in terms of numbers of new confirmed cases in recent weeks (14 cases in 4 weeks in November). However, we are very concerned that we had several Ebola cases that were not linked to any known chains of transmission—this means they had acquired the infection from an unknown source, which means those cases couldn’t be tracked through contact tracing and follow-up. This led to two new districts being affected, Masaka and Jinja.
It’s extremely important to follow up with case contacts. When we identify all the people who were in contact with a confirmed case in time, we can monitor their health and help them to seek care swiftly at the right health facility in case Ebola-related symptoms develop. Yet according to the Ministry of Health data, only around 64 percent of case contacts initially received follow-up, pointing to gaps in this crucial part of the response. While the overall epidemiological trend is now positive, we remain concerned and vigilant about what could still happen.
What are possible future scenarios?
...
December 13, 2022
It has been over two weeks since the last confirmed Ebola case—a stillborn baby of a mother who survived the disease—was reported in Uganda. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been responding to the rare outbreak of the Sudan Ebolavirus variant since it was declared on September 20 by building Ebola treatment centers and treatment units, providing support to the Ugandan Ministry of Health for case management in these facilities, and conducting community outreach activities like health promotion and infection protection and control measures in health facilities where known patients went prior to diagnosis.
What is the current trend of the outbreak in Uganda?
In terms of trends, we saw two important peaks in the outbreak. The first one was in September in the Mubende district, which was the first epicenter of this outbreak, and then another in the neighboring district of Kassanda. While cases in these two districts alone represent 80 percent of all cases detected so far in this outbreak, a total of nine districts in the country were affected. Historically, this is the largest geographic spread of Ebola that Uganda has ever faced.
After a steep rise of cases in October (86 cases over 4 weeks), the outbreak slowed in terms of numbers of new confirmed cases in recent weeks (14 cases in 4 weeks in November). However, we are very concerned that we had several Ebola cases that were not linked to any known chains of transmission—this means they had acquired the infection from an unknown source, which means those cases couldn’t be tracked through contact tracing and follow-up. This led to two new districts being affected, Masaka and Jinja.
It’s extremely important to follow up with case contacts. When we identify all the people who were in contact with a confirmed case in time, we can monitor their health and help them to seek care swiftly at the right health facility in case Ebola-related symptoms develop. Yet according to the Ministry of Health data, only around 64 percent of case contacts initially received follow-up, pointing to gaps in this crucial part of the response. While the overall epidemiological trend is now positive, we remain concerned and vigilant about what could still happen.
What are possible future scenarios?
...
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