A nurse in Uganda has died of Ebola, marking the first fatality from the virus since the country’s last outbreak ended in 2023, a health official said Thursday.
The 32-year-old nurse, who worked at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, developed a fever and was treated at multiple facilities before tests confirmed he had contracted Ebola. He died on Wednesday, and postmortem tests identified the Sudan strain of the virus, said Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health.
Health officials have identified at least 44 contacts, including 30 healthcare workers and patients at Mulago Hospital. Atwine assured the public that authorities are “in full control of the situation” and urged people to report suspected cases.
There are no approved vaccines for the Sudan strain of Ebola, making contact tracing crucial in containing the outbreak. Uganda’s last Ebola outbreak, which began in September 2022, killed at least 55 people before it was declared over in January 2023.
The confirmation of Ebola in Uganda follows a series of viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks in East Africa. Tanzania recently reported an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus, while Rwanda declared its Marburg outbreak over in December. The Marburg outbreak in Tanzania’s Kagera region has claimed at least two lives.
Ebola spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and in severe cases, internal and external bleeding. Scientists suspect that outbreaks originate from human contact with infected animals.
Uganda has experienced multiple Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2000 that killed hundreds. The deadliest recorded Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, claiming more than 11,000 lives. The virus was first identified in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, near the Ebola River, which gave the disease its name.