Govt seeks donor support to counter next Ebola outbreak

The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, has asked donors to consider supporting Uganda to prepare adequately for future Ebola outbreaks.

The minister told this publication last week that preparing the country for another Ebola outbreak does not only protect Uganda from the impact of the deadly viral disease but also the entire global community.

“I’m relying on you to support us to prepare adequately for trials of therapeutics and many can be undertaken. Support us to have diagnostics and vaccines ready. Don’t get surprised when we get another Ebola strain. It might happen in any district, God forbid, but preparing ourselves will protect the entire globe,” Dr Aceng said.

She added: “Whereas we have brought the seventh outbreak of Ebola Sudan under control, it doesn’t mean that Uganda will never get another Ebola outbreak. The last outbreak of Ebola Sudan was in 2012. It gave us 10 years to prepare but we did not make good progress with the vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. This should not happen again. The next outbreak should find us ready with countermeasures or public health tools.”

Dr Aceng said since partners had demonstrated capacity to respond to the recent Ebola Sudan outbreak in Mubende and Kassanda, they should again demonstrate their capacity to partner with the government to have the health tools ready.  

She noted that although Uganda has been declared Ebola free, the government and its partners should continue with surveillance, research on therapeutics, vaccines and diagnosis.

She admitted that containing the Mubende Ebola outbreak was challenging, since it came at a time when health workers, government and partners were still grappling with the Covid -19 pandemic.

Country exhausted
“Dealing with another outbreak was not palatable. It was difficult. Our health workers were exhausted, our partners were exhausted because there is a limit to doing difficult things all the time. In our history, it was the first time Ebola spread to Kampala metropolitan and to schools. There was panic and we were scared when it came to the city,” she said.  

Dr Aceng, however, attributed the success in the fight against the recent Ebola Sudan strain to interventions such as restricting movement of people in Ebola epicentres such as Kassanda and Mubende, putting contacts under quarantine, mass sensitisation at all levels, establishment of treatment centres in various districts, availability of a strong surveillance team and commitment from government, health workers, development partners and community members.  

WHO speaks
Responding to Dr Aceng’s request, the World Health Organisation Representative in Uganda,  Dr  Yonas Tegegn, said international experts would soon meet with Ugandan scientists to discuss the way forward.

Dr Tegegn said the experts will include vaccine producers, epidemiologists, and virologists among others.
 “There are studies that can be looked into such as, how one develops the antibodies, how the long term effects of antibodies created in the body are, how do we find the right subject and how do we do the studies. Those are the kind of studies the scientists will look into and tell us which one is a priority,” he said.

He acknowledged that it is cheaper and effective to prevent Ebola than to treat it.
Dr Tegegn revealed that if Ebola Sudan had not been contained, Uganda was to spend between $1m (about Shs3.6b)  and $3m (Shs10 b) on Ebola interventions on a daily basis.

Background
 Uganda last Wednesday declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged almost four months ago and claimed the lives of 55 people. The move was confirmed in a statement issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), whose chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the East African country’s «robust and comprehensive response» to the haemorrhagic fever.

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