Uganda has declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that has since claimed the lives of 55 people.
The move was confirmed in a statement issued by the World Health Organization.
According to the Ugandan health ministry, today marked 113 days,close to four months, since the start of the outbreak in the East African country.
According to WHO, an outbreak of the disease ends when there are no new cases for 42 consecutive days — twice the incubation period of Ebola.
On 20 September 2022, the Ministry of Health in Uganda, together with WHO AFRO, confirmed an outbreak of SVD in Mubende District, Uganda, after one fatal case was confirmed.
The index case was a 24-year-old man, a resident of Ngabano village of the Madudu sub-county in Mubende District. The patient experienced high fever, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and began vomiting blood on 11 September 2022. Samples were collected on 17 September 2022 and SVD was laboratory-confirmed on 19 September. The patient died on the same day, five days after hospitalisation.
This was the fifth SVD outbreak that occurred in Uganda.