The head of the Health Emergencies program of the World Health Organization said on Saturday that six people who were in contact with the last Ebola case of Uganda became sick, although it is not yet clear whether they also suffer from the dangerous viral disease. One is the patient’s wife, who died on Wednesday, and several others are health workers.
Mike Ryan, who, with Stat van Kampala, the capital of Ugandan, said, said that the reaction to the outbreak is fast, although he stated that the freezing of the Trump administration on help has created shortcomings in important areas that the Wie has had to cover.
Uganda uses funds from the American Bureau for International Development to transport samples from suspected cases of HIV, MPOX and Ebola to his national laboratory for testing. With that Money that is currently not availableThe WHO has arrived, Ryan said. He traveled to Uganda to help with the reaction and see what help the Ugandan government needs.
Likewise, Uganda uses American aid to pay for border input and exit screening at the international airport in Kampala and at two large border crossings. These efforts are crucial to ensure that people who may incur Ebola do not travel to other countries. For the time being the WHO will also pick up those costs, he said.
“We really hope that when they complete their assessment, the US will be able to restart financing to those specific projects because they are health security projects,” Ryan said.
When Stat spoke with Ryan, there had been a single confirmed case in this outbreak, although the test results were pending on the six contacts that had fallen ill. It still has to be determined whether the first patient is the real index case, or whether he was infected by someone whose illness was not identified as Ebola – in which case other, not yet detected, can be chains of transmission.
Vaccination efforts aimed at the well-known contacts and health workers who will provide all new things can already start in Sunday, he said, and will use an experimental vaccine developed by the non-profit group IAVI.
There are two licensed Ebola vaccins, but they protect against Ebola Zaire viruses. The Ugandan outbreak includes a different kind of virus, Ebola Sudan. The Iavi Vaccin is made after the approach used by one of the recognized Ebola Zaire vaccines, Merck’s inheritance.
The supplies of the experimental vaccine – 2,160 doses – have already been nominated in Uganda, as part of the preparatory work that the WHO and partners have done in recent years to try to help countries with the risk of Ebola outbreaks react faster. The vaccine is given in one dose.
Uganda has had six previous Ebola outbreaks, including the two largest Ebola Sudan outbreaks on record. One of them, involving 164 cases and 55 deaths, took place in 2022.
“The vaccination teams are trained from this evening. They are fully integrated with the monitoring teams. The protocols have been approved and the entire system went through, “said Ryan.
To date, at least 234 contacts of the confirmed case have been identified. About half are people who were exposed to the Ebola patient in health care – medical professionals, hospital cleaners and patients who were in the same department. It was only known after the man’s death that he had Ebola, so it is conceivable that health workers did not use the high levels of personal protective equipment needed to prevent the transfer of the virus.
It is not yet known how the man, a 32-year-old nurse, sustained Ebola. Given his profession, it is possible that he came across an Ebola patient who was not diagnosed by his work. Missed cases often occur early in Ebola outbreaks; When patients seek care in hospitals, the size of an outbreak can quickly strengthen.
As his illness progressed, the man went to three hospitals, in Kampala and in Mbale City, about 140 miles away. He also visited a traditional healer, whose identity has not yet been established, Ryan said. He died in the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, where he worked. (The man also had a private practice and saw patients outside the hospital.)
Only after the man died did the testing show that he had had Ebola.
Of the 118 health care -related contacts, about half are in Kampala and half in Mbale. The capital has a national medical emergency aid team, trained in infectious diseases of reactions and a dedicated insulation center with 84 beds. Another treatment center of comparable size is set up by the non -profit group doctors without borders and the Ugandan government, Ryan said.
The treatment capacity at Mbale is not so advanced, he said and notices who is looking for the use of POD-based treatment units. “If something started in Mbale, it might be a bigger challenge to maintain.” Ryan praised the rapid reaction of the Ugandan government and the speed with which it was an outbreak.
“They have been open, they have invited who in, they have been radically transparent and they must be supported now,” he said, encouraging other countries not to raise travel prohibitions to Uganda. “What they need is support and help and not a punishment.”