Ugandan health officials confirmed a case of Ebola in the capital on Thursday, Kampala, in a nurse looking for care in a number of facilities.
The nurse, a 32-year-old man, died on Wednesday in the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, after which health officials confirmed that the cause was Ebola, the Ministry of Health said. No one else in the hospital – care provider or patient – has shown signs of Ebola.
So far, civil servants have identified more than 40 people who had contact with the man, including 30 health workers in the Kampala hospital, 11 family members and four health workers in another hospital in Matugga, which is approximately 20 kilometers outside of Kampala. The man also sought help from a traditional healer.
The man was infected with the Sudan -Stame from Ebola, for which there are no recognized therapeutics or vaccines. However, there are experimental vaccines for the tension and the Ugandan Ministry of Health said that it would immediately offer vaccines to the man’s contacts. It did not indicate which vaccine candidates it would use.
The confirmation of an Ebola case comes in a fragile time in global health. Under the new Trump administration, the US will return to withdraw from the World Health Organization and has already paused communication with WHO officials, steps that have dissected American and international health officials on a large scale and warned the worldwide and American health security.
An Ebola outbreak in an urban environment such as Kampala increases special fears for transmission.
Separately, officials investigate a different possible outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, although that still has to be confirmed. There is also an outbreak of Marburg fever, caused by a related virus, in Tanzania.
The man in Uganda initially suffered from fever, chest pain and effort to breathe for a few days, which would look for care in a number of hospitals. His infection progressed to the point that he experienced inexplicable bleeding and organ failure.
In 2022, Uganda had an outbreak caused by Ebola Sudan, the first of the country in a decade. There were 164 cases, including 55 dead. Health officials started testing Ebola Sudan candidate -vaccines during that outbreak.
There are approved vaccines for a different type of Ebola, the Zaire tribe.