KAMPALA: A young child has died of the Ebola virus in Uganda, the second victim of an outbreak that was announced in late January, the health ministry confirmed yesterday.
On Tuesday, Ugandan health authorities reported 10 cases of the Sudan Ebola strain, including a nurse at Mulago National Referral Hospital who had succumbed to the virus.
An additional case was detected at Mulago on Saturday.
The deceased child, a resident of Kibuli, Kampala, was linked to the primary cluster of infections, the ministry stated.
Health officials had earlier expressed optimism about containing the outbreak, first announced on January 30, after confirming on February 19 that eight infected individuals had recovered following treatment.
Meanwhile, 265 people who had contact with the deceased nurse were placed under quarantine at hospitals in Kampala and Mbale for monitoring.
This marks Uganda’s sixth outbreak of the Sudan Ebola strain, for which there is currently no approved vaccine.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals. Symptoms—including fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhoea—appear between two and 21 days after exposure.
Uganda’s previous Ebola outbreak, between 2022 and 2023, lasted four months and claimed 55 lives. The deadliest Ebola epidemic occurred in West Africa (2013-2016), killing over 11,300 people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the past 50 years, Ebola has caused over 15,000 deaths across Africa, spanning all six known strains of the virus.
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