On Monday, February 3, 2025, health reports indicated that two cases of Ebola had been confirmed, while at least 25 people were ferried to the National Quarantine Center in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
The patients and suspects are contacts of a 32-year-old male nurse at Mulago National Referral Hospital, who tested positive and succumbed to the disease last week.
Addressing journalists at Jinja City Hall on Tuesday, Mr. Saidi Kalume, the senior health educator of Jinja City, confirmed that the two suspects are relatives of the deceased index case and were all located in Mafubira Zone B, in the Northern Division of Jinja City.
“The patients we have now are the wife of the male nurse who died last week and his son. The wife returned to Jinja with the son, and we managed to trace them and found them in Mafubira, Jinja City,” Mr. Kalume said after a taskforce meeting at City Hall.
He added, “We took samples from them and sent them to Kampala. It was on Monday when we received the news that they tested positive.”
According to the Ministry of Health, the deceased health worker developed fever-like symptoms and sought treatment at multiple health facilities, including Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Saidina Abubakar Islamic Hospital in Matugga, Wakiso District, and Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, as well as from a traditional healer.
This has since posed a challenge for the Ministry to trace all the movements of the deceased until the newly established Jinja City Ebola task force led the way to Mafubira to identify the probable contacts.
Mr. Kalume said that fumigation of homes in the area had been expedited and that the two patients were responding positively to medication. He, however, noted that an unidentified youth who operates a local salon in Mafubira feared the health team and fled. Mr. Kalume called for his return to prevent further transmission of the disease.
The Jinja City Resident Commissioner (RCC), Mr. Richard Gulume, cautioned residents to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) established to manage the transmission of the deadly disease. He encouraged all leaders to use their platforms to sensitize communities about Ebola.
Mr. Kalume, however, said that they had formed a task force, which is managing the outbreak and preventing it from escalating within the city. Village Health Teams (VHTs) would be given megaphones to disseminate the message and raise awareness about the disease.
“We plan to meet with boda-boda riders, market chiefs, and other key stakeholders in managing this disease to emphasize how they can effectively pass the messages to their customers,” Mr. Kalume noted.
Earlier last week, officials reassured the public that all necessary measures were being put in place to prevent the spread of the disease, including providing personal protective equipment to healthcare workers and establishing isolation units.
The Ministry has also set up an isolation center at the main Mulago Referral Hospital and has quarantined health workers who came into contact with the deceased nurse. To curb the spread of the virus, the Ministry is working with educational institutions to control the spread of Mpox and Ebola as schools reopen.
Ebola Virus can be transmitted by saliva and other bodily fluids such as stool, urine, semen, vaginal secretions, runny nose, and blood. When these fluids come into contact with broken skin, the eyes, or the mouth of others, they can transmit the Ebola virus.
According to experts, handshaking should be avoided as it poses a risk during an Ebola outbreak or before a potential outbreak. You can greet people by waving or acknowledging them with a nod. It is very important to wash your hands regularly with soap and clean water.
The public has been advised to stop eating bush meat during this Ebola outbreak, as wild animals are the source of the Ebola virus. Monkeys, chimpanzees, bats, and all dead animals found in the bush must not be touched or eaten.
According to reports, Uganda has launched a clinical trial for a vaccine against Sudan Virus Disease (SVD), a major milestone in the country’s response to the latest Ebola outbreak. The trial, which began after the Health Ministry confirmed the outbreak last week, will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine candidate.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has donated 2,160 doses of the candidate vaccine and treatments to Uganda to support the country’s efforts to combat the outbreak. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa, hailed the trial as a testament to the power of collaboration in global health security.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health now reports three laboratory-confirmed Ebola cases, including two new cases since last week.
Sudan Virus Disease, caused by the Sudan Ebola virus, is a hemorrhagic fever with a high fatality rate. The disease claimed 55 lives in the previous outbreak in late 2022.
