Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of World Health Organisation, arrived in Uganda on Sunday to assess the readiness of the teams to combat the outbreak of Ebola in Kasese District, which has so far claimed three lives.
On 11 June 2019, the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MoH) confirmed a case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Kasese district, Uganda.
The patient is a 5-year-old child from the DRC who travelled with his family from Mabalako Health Zone in DRC after attending, on 1 June 2019, the funeral of his grandfather (confirmed EVD case on 2 June 2019).
WHO risk assessment
All three confirmed cases are imported from DRC and belong to the same family who travelled together from Mabalako Health Zone, an area currently affected by Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DRC.
To date, they remain as a single episode of EVD in Uganda, and the geographical spread in Uganda appears to be limited to one district near DRC border. Further investigations are ongoing both in Uganda and DRC to assess the full extent of the outbreak.
Considering that to date i) the EVD cases confirmed in Uganda were epidemiologically linked to the DRC; ii) all three cases belong to single family cluster with a common high-risk exposure to a confirmed case, iii) the level of preparedness and the proven experience of Ugandan authorities to manage previous EVD outbreaks, and iv) the rapidity of the detection and a limited geographical area affected (Kasese district), the overall level of risk at national level is assessed as moderate.
Moreover, given that there is no evidence of local transmission of EVD in Uganda and the location of the outbreak being close to the DRC border, the overall risk posed at regional level by the Ugandan outbreak is considered low. However, the overall regional risk posed by the outbreak in DRC remains very high. The overall risk at international level remains low.
"This has been an incredible meeting where I have got an opportunity to learn, with pleasure, that, the is on top of the response in with immense support from the partners. I pledge my support to ensure that this outbreak is contained." pic.twitter.com/GGHliramag
— WHO Uganda (@WHOUganda)
