Health authorities in Uganda have admitted that even though the country’s latest Ebola outbreak is over, the source of the outbreak still remains unknown.
In her remarks at the event marking the official declaration of the end of the outbreak, Dr. Aceng Jane Ruth Ocero, Uganda’s Minister for Health, said the health ministry is working with its local and international partners to identify the source of the outbreak in addition to factors suggesting possible seasonal occurrences.
“The source of this outbreak, like many others, is still not known. My Ministry working with local and international partners continue to look for the most possible and proximal source of the current outbreak, and the reasons for the occurrence of Ebola outbreaks around the months of July to October,” Ocero said.
The minister however revealed the main drivers of transmission of the virus were household infection, and amplification in some private health facilities. She noted that except for one superspreader event in Kassanda district – post burial, burials or burial practices were not a major driver of transmission.
“Three portals of transmission were observed in this outbreak that include: contact transmission, sexual, and transplacental transmission,” the minister revealed.
The outbreak was Uganda’s seventh Ebola, and the fifth attributed to sudan Ebola virus, the last being reported in 2012, in the former Kibaale district, but is now referred to as Kakumiro.
The outbreak officially ended on 11 January 2023, 114 days since the start of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, which was declared on the morning of 20th September 2022. The outbreak started in Madudu subcounty, Mubende District and at the time of confirmation, several people had been infected and others with symptoms consistent with Ebola had died.
The outbreak was identified after an adult male, who later died, was managed at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital, and confirmed to have been infected with sudan Ebola virus disease.