This disease has reappeared in central Uganda, with the first case from a strain called “Sudanese” reported on 20 September in Mubende district. Since then, 56 people have died from the virus, out of a total of 142 people infected.
“We are very pleased that Uganda today received 1,200 doses of one of the three candidate vaccines once morest the Sudanese strain of Ebola virus,” Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng told AFP as the cargo arrived at Entebbe airport.
While there is no vaccine available once morest this strain, the WHO has given the green light for a clinical trial of three candidate vaccines to be conducted in Uganda.
The vaccines delivered Thursday were developed by the Sabin Institute located in the United States with the support of the American authorities.
Two others, one developed by the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute in the UK and produced by the Serum Institute of India and the other developed by the scientific research organization International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) , will be added later.
This is a vaccination trial “in a ring”, method in which contacts of patients, or even contacts of contacts, are targeted. Ugandan authorities said in November that cases of contamination were down.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, estimated on Thursday that with the last confirmed case discharged from hospital on November 30, the country had “started the countdown” towards an end to the epidemic.
According to criteria set by the WHO, an outbreak of the disease is declared over following 42 consecutive days – twice the incubation period of the disease – without new cases.
“There are still 33 days”, That is to say until January 10, 2023, to be able to declare the end of the epidemic, Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, WHO representative in Uganda, said on Thursday.
Ebola is an often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever. The disease is named following a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where it was discovered in 1976. Uganda, an East African country, has experienced six episodes of Ebola, the last of which was in 2019. Four of them were caused by the so-called Sudanese strain.
