Uganda’s Ebola outbreak under control: Africa’s top health authority

The Ebola outbreak in Uganda is under control and could be announced in the next few days, according to Africa’s top public health authority. Uganda declared its latest Ebola outbreak last September, which officials said was caused by Sudan’s relatively rare strain of the virus, which has no vaccine or approved drug treatment.

The number of injuries and deaths has decreased after an initial blast, with the total number now at 56 deaths and 142 cases, according to the Health Ministry. “It has been 39 days since the last confirmed case,” Ahmed Oguel-Uma, acting chief of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told a news briefing Thursday.

“If no new cases are reported by January 10th, the outbreak will be declared over,” he said. He was referring to the World Health Organization’s guidelines, according to which a country is declared free of Ebola if no infections have been reported for 42 consecutive days.

Uma added that vaccine trials are also underway in the country.

According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently no active cases in Uganda, while President Yoweri Museveni lifted all Ebola-related restrictions last month, saying the country “overcame Ebola because people listened.”