Uganda Confirms Ebola Outbreak in Mubende District

The Ministry of Health, has confirmed an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Mubende District, Uganda.

According to the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Diana Atwiine, the confirmed case is of a 24-year old male, a resident of Ngabano village of Madudu Sub County in Mubende District.

She said the patient presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed.

Atwiine noted that the clinical team took off samples for testing at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), where results confirmed that the patient was positive for the Ebola-Sudan strain.

She noted that the ministry and its partners have dispatched a Rapid Response Team to Mubende District to support the teams in surveillance, contact tracing, and case management.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a rare and deadly disease in people and nonhuman primates. People can get EVD through direct contact with an infected animal (bat or nonhuman primate) or a sick or dead person infected with Ebola virus.

She advised people to avoid contact with blood and body fluids (such as urine, feces, saliva, sweat, vomit, breast milk, amniotic fluid, semen, and vaginal fluids) of people who are sick.

Avoid contact with semen from a man who has recovered from EVD, until testing shows that the virus is gone from his semen.

Avoid contact with items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids (such as clothes, bedding, needles, and medical equipment).

Avoid funeral or burial
practices that involve touching the body of someone who died from EVD or suspect EVD.

Avoid contact with bats, forest antelopes, and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys and chimpanzees) blood, fluids, or raw meat prepared from these or unknown animals (bushmeat), are some of the precautions that were given.