As of Friday, Uganda is on high alert following an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has so far claimed 15 lives.
On 4 Sept. 4, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared its 16th outbreak of Ebola virus disease since 1976, after laboratory tests confirmed the Zaire strain in the South-Central province of Kasai near Angola.
The index case, a 34-year-old pregnant woman admitted in late August with high fever and persistent vomiting, is now the reference point in a widening response that spans remote health posts and the halls of Kinshasa’s national labs.
By the time of the declaration, health authorities had identified 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths across two health zones of Bulape and Mweka including four infections among healthcare workers.
Samples tested on Sept.3 at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa confirmed Ebola Zaire, triggering rapid deployments, emergency logistics and the familiar choreography of tracing contacts, isolating cases and protecting those on the front lines.
Henry Kyobe Bosa, incident commander at the Ministry of Health, said that authorities are closely monitoring the situation and will conduct a risk assessment before developing measures to prevent possible importation of the virus.
“The free movement between the two countries, back and forth, remains, which poses a challenge of importation,” Kyobe said. “As soon as the risk assessment is done, we shall put in place interventions.”
The World Health Organization has warned that infections could rise further in the new outbreak in the DRC’s south-central province of Kasai.
The DRC last declared the end of an Ebola outbreak in September 2022, after one case was confirmed in the eastern province of North Kivu. Genetic testing showed the case was linked to the massive 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri, which killed nearly 2,300 people.
Ebola is a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever that causes symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain, or malaise, and in many cases, internal and external bleeding.
