KAMPALA– President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to address the country on the Ebola outbreak on Wednesday September 28, 2022.
This was revealed by Senior Press Secretary to the president Sandor Walusimbi.
“From the office of the press secretary, President Yoweri Museveni will address the nation live on Wednesday September 28, 2022 at 8PM to update the country on issues of national importance including Ebola outbreak,” he noted in a social media post.
Uganda confirmed the Ebola outbreak in Mubende district on September 20, 2022 after the death of 24-year old male, a resident of Ngabano village of Madudu Sub County in Mubende District who presented with EVD symptoms.
As of September 26,2022, the ministry of health registered 36 cumulative cases with 23 deaths and no recovery.
What is the Ebola Sudan strain?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there had been seven previous outbreaks of Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.
According to the global health watchdog, Ebola Sudan is a single member of the Sudan ebolavirus species and one of the six known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus, and one of the four that causes EVD in humans and other primates.
Uganda’s health ministry on Tuesday declared that the Ebola outbreak in the central Mubende District is of the Sudan variant, different from the Zaire type ravaging eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
The Ebola Sudan was named because the virus causing it was first discovered in the southern part of Sudan, present-day South Sudan, in 1976.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) initially categorized Ebola, whose name derives from River Ebola in former Zaire, now DR Congo, as a hemorrhagic fever before revising it to Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
According to WHO, Ebola Sudan is a single member of the Sudan ebolavirus species and one of the six known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus, and one of the four that causes EVD in humans and other primates.
The first known EVD of the Sudan variant was registered on June 27, 1976, and 151 of 284 infected persons died.
The disease cannot be differentiated from others caused by other ebola viruses by just clinical observation alone.
In a statement, the WHO Africa office said it was helping Uganda’s health authorities with the investigation and staff deployment to the affected area.
WHO said there had been seven previous outbreaks of Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan. It said Uganda last reported an outbreak of the Ebola Sudan strain in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola Zaire strain in 2019.
