The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, has said that there is no known treatment for the Sudan Ebola Virus.
Speaking at the Uganda Media Center, Aceng noted that currently, there are a number of promising treatment options that the Ministry of Health is using under trial including monoclonal antibodies and repurposed drugs like Remdeservir donated by the US government.
She added that the doses available are still very few.
“So far, 13 patients have received these trial drugs with relatively good outcomes. Four patients admitted in critical condition succumbed, emphasizing the importance of early reporting and hence treatment,” she said.
According to Dr Aceng, the Ministry of Health will be evaluating the efficacy of three candidate Ebola Sudan vaccines on contacts in the coming weeks.
She listed the candidate vaccines as Oxford from the United Kingdom, Sabin from the USA and Merck from the USA, saying the main objective is to evaluate their efficacy to protect primary contacts of Ebola patients within 29 days of contact.
“We plan to vaccinate contacts of 150 confirmed cases (3000) initially. The trial preparation has been concluded and we estimate that we may begin the trial in two weeks’ time,” she said.
The Ministry also appealed to the citizenry to cooperate with the surveillance teams, the contact tracers (VHTS) and health workers.
She also cautioned health workers to maintain Infection, Prevention and Control measures at all times.
On 20th September 2022, the Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of the Ebola- Sudan virus in the district of Mubende.
The outbreak then spread to affect four other districts including Kasanda, Kagadi, Bunyangabu, and Kyegegwa within a period of two weeks.
Subsequently, due to movements of contacts and symptomatic individuals for health services, the outbreak spread to Wakiso District and Kampala City.
All the affected local authorities had been categorized as very high risk or high risk based on the assessment done by the Ministry of Health.
The total number of confirmed cases stands at 109 of whom 30 have succumbed to this deadly disease while 34 have been treated and have improved while 45 are under treatment.
Among the confirmed cases, have also been health workers. To-date, fifteen (15) health workers have been infected of whom six (6) have succumbed to the infection.
Of the fifteen (15), the six (6) were from the private facilities and nine (9) are from the public health sector. This includes the team of medical students who got infected in Mubende Referral Regional Hospital.
The Minister noted that most of the cases tend to visit several private clinics for care before finally going to the public facility as a last resort which exposes the healthcare workers to infection.
