Uganda is expected to end the Ebola outbreak on Wednesday if no cases are declared by then, said the health ministry.
Since authorities started an Ebola outbreak on September 20, the East African country has recorded 142 confirmed patients and 56 deaths. This illness has reappeared in central Uganda, with the first case from a so-called “Sudanese” strain.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an epidemic is said to be finished when there are no new cases for 42 straight days, i.e. twice the incubation period of Ebola.
The statement of the end of Ebola “will take place on Wednesday in the district of Mubende”, in the middle of the country, where the epidemic started, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health Emmanuel Ainebyoona.
The last confirmed case with the virus was removed from the hospital on November 30, health authorities said.
There is currently no vaccine against the “Sudanese” strain of the virus. But three experimental vaccines – one developed by the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute in Britain, another by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in the United States, and a third by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) – are currently being tested in Uganda, after first deliveries in December.