The government of Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola in the central part of the country on Tuesday. The strain detected is a relatively rare strain, called the Sudan strain, which doesn’t have an approved vaccine that can prevent its spread. It’s been a decade since this strain was reported globally.
The confirmed case was a 24-year-old man in Mubende district who died. He was part of an investigation of six suspicious deaths in the district this month — an investigation that is ongoing. Another eight suspected cases are currently receiving care. The World Health Organization and national health authorities are investigating the source of the outbreak in order to aid in containment measurements.
According to WHO, the strain had a fatality that ranged from 41% to 100% in previous outbreaks. There have been seven outbreaks of the Sudan type of strain globally, with four in Uganda and three in Sudan.
The last outbreak of this type of strain in Uganda was in four districts across the country in 2012. This was the last time this strain was reported globally and it resulted in 31 cases and 21 deaths throughout that year in Uganda. It was also reported in the country in 2011. Sudan last saw the Ebola virus in 2004.
Four strains of Ebola virus are known to cause disease in humans. The majority of outbreaks are the Zaire strain. Bushmeat and bats are hosts of the virus, and once transmitted to humans, it spreads among communities through contact with bodily fluid.
Uganda’s last outbreak of Ebola was in 2019, but this was the Ebola Zaire — imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a neighboring country. At the time, DRC was experiencing a massive outbreak on the border with Uganda. A 5-year-old child had traveled from DRC to Uganda after the funeral of his grandfather, who had died from Ebola. The outbreak in Uganda had three cases.
While the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, or Ervebo, has been a game-changer in containing Ebola outbreaks on the continent, it is only approved for the Zaire strain. But WHO said in a release that another vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson could be effective against the Sudan strain — but it has not yet been tested.