Attachments
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the crisis
On 20 September 2022, the Ministry of Health (MoH) Uganda issued a statement announcing a positive case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), a Sudan strain in the district of Mubende, 130 km west of Kampala with an index case being a 24-year-old man who sought care at St Johns Medical clinic in Katwe. It then spread to Kassanda, Kyegegwa, Kagadi, Bunyangabu, Wakiso, Jinja, Masaka, and Kampala districts. Outside the epicenter district (Mubende), secondary transmission took place in Kassanda, Wakiso, Kampala, Kyegegwa, and Jinja. 114 days later since the start of the Ebola outbreak, on January 11th, 2023, the outbreak was declared over. At the time of this update, the country was still under the 90 days surveillance period. Before the outbreak was declared over, a total of 143 confirmed cases of Ebola, with 22 probable cases, 55 deaths (CFR=39%), and 87 recoveries had been registered in this outbreak. Of the 143 confirmed cases, 85 (59%) were males while 58 (41%) were females. By age, 26 (18%) were children while 117 (82%) were adults.
This outbreak marked the 7th Ebola outbreak in the country, and the 5th attributed to the Sudan Ebola virus, which was last reported in 2012, more than a decade ago in the then-Kibaale district, but present-day Kakumiro.
Prior to this outbreak, Uganda had registered seven (7) previous Ebola outbreaks.
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In 2018, Ebola Zaire cases were imported from the DRC into Kasese District, with 4 cases and 4 deaths registered (CFR=100%).
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In 2012, two Sudan Ebola outbreaks occurred; Kibale district outbreak happened in July with 11 cases and 4 deaths CFR=36%) while the Luwero district outbreak happened in November with 6 cases and 3 deaths (CFR=50%).
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In 2011, Sudan Ebola outbreak occurred in Luwero district. This was a one-case and one-death outbreak with no secondary transmission.
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In 2007, an outbreak occurred in Bundibugyo district (Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak) where 131 cases and 42 deaths (CFR=32%) were registered.
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In 2000, Uganda’s first Ebola outbreak (Sudan Ebola outbreak) occurred in Gulu district, where 425 cases and 224 deaths (CFR=53%) were recorded. The Gulu outbreak was and remains the largest outbreak ever registered in Uganda, lasting nearly 6 months.
Summary of response
Overview of the host National Society and ongoing response
The Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) has been supporting the EVD response since the start of the outbreak. The URCS supports five pillars, and these include.
• Coordination
• Surveillance (Community-Based Surveillance)
• Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE),
• Case Management – (SDB and ambulance services)
• Mental Health (Psychosocial Support)
• URCS established an operations manager working hand in hand with the IFRC operations manager. The operations manager is the team leader and is supported by four different supervisors: Public health,
Ambulance services, Community IPC, and Monitoring and Evaluation which in turn work through different officers under them. All the team leads attend daily briefing meetings chaired by the operations manager at 7.30 am to review progress for possible strengthening and remodelling of strategies.
• URCS participates in all the task force and pillar meetings across the nine response districts: (Mubende,
Kassanda, Kagadi, Kyegegwa, Bunyangabu, Kampala, Wakiso, Jinja, and Masaka) as well as at the national level.
• At the community level, URCS worked with 3,130 community volunteers across all the response districts.