First Ebola death confirmed in Kampala ahead of Museveni address

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The Ministry of Health has confirmed the first Ebola death in Kampala, which occurred at Kiruddu National Referral Hospital.

The confirmed case is of a man that travelled from the Mubende district, the current epicentre of Ebola, and changed identification on presentation to the health facility.

The revelation was made by Health minister Dr Ruth Aceng on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 during the discharge of the five health workers that had contracted Ebola during their line of duty.

The Ministry of Health has isolated 42 people who got into contact with the Ebola patient who died at Kiruddu Hospital.

The Minister also revealed that Uganda has 54 confirmed cases after the discharge of the 5 health workers who tested negative.
As a result, KCCA is tracking over 50 suspected cases of Ebola in the Central Business District following the rise in alerts and suspected contacts since the outbreak of the disease two weeks ago.

The authority has now embarked on strategic plans, including follow-ups to help in containing the disease.
This comes as President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is this Wednesday, October 12th, set to address the nation to give updates on the status of Ebola in the country.

The President’s address was announced by his press secretary, Sandor Walusimbi, who said it will be live on TV and radios starting at 8pm on Wednesday.

This comes as the Health Ministry said there is a decline in the number of new cases of Ebola infections in the country and that the virus has not spread beyond five districts.

The announcement followed the international health alerts and some forms of travel restrictions on passengers from Uganda, which were introduced by the governments of the United States of America and the United Kingdom over the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Uganda.

The Ministry declared the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) on September 20 and since then, a total of 44 have contracted the infection which has so far killed 10.

Since October 2, the country has only reported one new case of infection and one new death. At least 7 people have recovered from the virus which kills between 25 percent and 90 percent of the infected persons. This is higher than the Covid-19 case fatality rate of around 3 percent.

Dr Atwine said the measures they established to fight the outbreak are working. “Government of Uganda and its partners have put measures to control the disease. The number of cases has since declined. All the contacts within Mubende and the neighbouring districts have been identified and isolated and are being followed on a daily basis,” she added.