By Asmau Ahmad
Outbreak at a glance On September 20, 2022, Ugandan health authorities declared an outbreak of Ebola disease, caused by the Sudan virus, following laboratory confirmation of a patient from a village in Madudu sub-county, District from Mubende, central Uganda.
As of September 25, 2022, a cumulative number of 18 confirmed cases and 18 probable cases have been reported in Mubende, Kyegegwa and Kassanda districts, including 23 deaths, of which five were among confirmed cases (CFR among confirmed cases 28%).
This is the first outbreak of Ebola caused by the Sudan virus (SUDV) in Uganda since 2012.
Description of the outbreak On September 20, 2022, Ugandan health authorities declared an outbreak of Ebola caused by the Sudan virus (SUDV).
Sudan (SUDV), after one case was confirmed in a village in Madudu sub-county in Mubende district, central Uganda.
The case was a 24-year-old man who developed a wide range of symptoms on 9/11, including high fever, tonic seizures, vomiting blood and diarrhea, loss of appetite, pain on swallowing, chest pain, dry cough, and bleeding in the eyes.
He visited two private clinics successively between 11-13 and 13-15 September with no improvement.
He was subsequently referred to the Regional Referral Hospital (RRH) on September 15 where he was isolated as a suspected case of viral hemorrhagic fever.
He had a blood sample collected on September 17 and sent to the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Kampala, where RT-PCR tests were positive for SUDV on September 19.
On the same day, the patient died preliminary investigation results identified a number of community deaths from an unknown disease in Madudu and Kiruma sub-counties of Mubende district reported in the first two weeks of September.
These deaths are now considered probable Ebola cases caused by SUDV.
As of September 25, 2022, a cumulative number of 36 cases (18 confirmed and 18 probable) have been reported in Mubende (14 confirmed and 18 probable), Kyegegwa (3 confirmed cases), and Kassanda (1 confirmed case) districts.
There have been 23 deaths, of which five were among confirmed cases (CFR among confirmed cases 28%).
Of the total confirmed and suspected cases, 62% are women and 38% are men.
There are currently 13 confirmed cases hospitalized. The median age of the cases is 26 years (range 1 year to 60 years). A cumulative number of 223 contacts have been listed.
