The head of the health emergency program of the World Health Organization said on Saturday that six people who were in contact with the latest Ugandan Ebola affair had fallen ill, although it was not yet clear if they Also suffer from dangerous viral disease. One is the patient’s wife, who died on Wednesday, and many others are health workers.
Mike Ryan, who spoke to Stat de Kampala, the Ugandan capital, said that the response to the epidemic takes place quickly, although he noted that the trump administration on aid created deficits In key areas that WHO must have covered.
Uganda uses funds from the American agency for international development to transport samples since suspicious cases of HIV, MPOX and Ebola to its national test laboratory. With this money currently available, WHO has intervened, said Ryan. He went to Uganda to help the answer and see what help the Ugandan government needs.
Similarly, Uganda uses American aid to pay borders screening at the entrance and over the course at Kampala International Airport and two major border crossings. These efforts are essential to ensure that people who could incubate Ebola do not go to other countries. For the moment, the WHO will also take these costs, he said.
“We really hope that the United States, when it will finish its exam, will be able to restart the financing of these specific projects because they are health security projects,” said Ryan.
When Stat spoke to Ryan, there had been only one case confirmed in this epidemic, although the test results were pending on the six contacts that had fallen ill. It remains to be determined if the first patient is the real case of index, or if he was infected with someone whose disease was not identified as Ebola – in which case, there could be other channels of transmission, still not detected.
Vaccination efforts targeting known contacts and health workers who will take care of any new case could start on Sunday, he said, and will use an experimental vaccine developed by the IAVI non-profit group.
There are two Ebola licensed vaccines, but they protect against Ebola Zaire viruses. The Ugandan epidemic involves a different species from the virus, Ebola Soudan. The IAVI vaccine is carried out as a result of the approach used by one of the Ebola Zaire license vaccines, Ervebo de Merck.
Experimental vaccine supplies – 2,160 doses – are already in Uganda, prepositioned in the context of the preparatory work that WHO and partners have done in recent years to try to help countries at risk of ebola reprimands react more quickly. The vaccine is given in a dose.
Uganda had six previous Ebola epidemics, including the two largest epidemics of Sudan Ebola never recorded. One of them, who involved 164 cases and 55 deaths, took place in 2022.
“Since this evening, the vaccination teams have been trained. They are entirely integrated into the surveillance teams. The protocols were approved and crossed the whole system, “said Ryan.
To date, at least 234 contacts of the confirmed case have been identified. About half are people exposed to the Ebola patient in a health care establishment – health professionals, hospital cleaners and patients who were in the same neighborhood. It is only known after the death of the man he had Ebola, it is therefore conceivable that health workers do not use the high levels of personal protection equipment necessary to prevent the transmission of the virus.
We do not yet know how man, a 32 -year -old nurse, contracted Ebola. Given his profession, it is possible that, thanks to his work, he met an Ebola patient who was not diagnosed. The missed cases often occur at the beginning of Ebola epidemics; When patients are looking for care in hospitals, the size of an epidemic can quickly grow.
As his illness progressed, the man went to three hospitals, to Kampala and Mbale City, about 140 miles away. He also visited a traditional healer, whose identity has not yet been determined, said Ryan. He died at the National Reference Hospital of Mulago in Kampala, where he worked. (Man also had private practice, seeing patients outside the hospital.)
It was only after the death of the man that the tests showed that he had had Ebola.
Of the 118 contacts related to health care, about half are in Kampala and half in Mbale. The capital has a national emergency medical team, trained in responses to infectious diseases and a dedicated isolation center with 84 beds. Another similar -size treatment center is set up by doctors of the non -profit -based border group and the Ugandan government, said Ryan.
Mbale’s treatment capacity is not as advanced, he said, noting who is looking to deploy pods-based treatment units. “If something should be launched in Mbale, it can be more difficult to maintain.” Ryan praised the Rapid response from the Ugandan government, and the speed with which he reported that an epidemic was underway.
“They were opened, they invited who are, they have been radically transparent and they must be supported now,” he said, exhoring other countries not to perceive travel prohibitions against Uganda . “What they need is support and assistance and not punishment.”
