Uganda Ebola Outbreak: Cases Surge to 14 as New Cluster Emerges, Health Workers Scramble to Respond

Africa’s top public health agency says that Uganda’s Ebola caseload increased to 14 in the last week with a new cluster emerging from a 4-year-old child who recently died of the infectious disease.

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Uganda’s Ebola caseload increased to 14 in the last week, Africa’s top public health agency said Thursday, with a new cluster emerging from a 4-year-old child who recently died of the infectious disease.

Three of five new cases have been confirmed as Ebola, with two cited as probably Ebola, Dr. Ngashi Ngongo of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.

The Africa CDC reported that there was no direct epidemiological link between the new cluster and another one accounting for nine previous Ebola cases, including the first victim of the outbreak.

Ebola is now spreading in five of Uganda’s 146 districts, it said. That includes Kampala, the capital, where the outbreak was declared on Jan. 30. Two Ebola deaths have been confirmed.

Local health officials have not been giving regular updates on the outbreak, raising concerns about a lack of transparency. At least three hospitals in Kampala have handled confirmed or suspected Ebola cases without later informing the public of it.

Dr. Charles Olaro, the director of health services in the Ministry of Health, told The Associated Press he believed the situation was under control. Officials were not required to give updates on every incident, he said.

Ugandan officials are still investigating the source of the latest outbreaks 

The first victim was a male nurse who died the day before the outbreak was declared. He had sought treatment at multiple facilities in Kampala and in eastern Uganda, where he also visited a traditional healer in trying to diagnose his illness, before later dying in Kampala.

Uganda’s last outbreak, discovered in September 2022, killed at least 55 people before it was declared over in January 2023.

Dr Emmanuel Batiibwe, a hospital director who helped lead efforts to stop that outbreak, described the current one as "amorphous," throwing up sporadic cases that require more serious surveillance to locate and isolate contacts.

Ebola in Uganda is the latest in a trend of outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers in the east African region.

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