Online Reporter
Heba Habib
Uganda has been declared free of Ebola, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirming that the East African country had passed the mandatory 42-day monitoring period without any new cases.
WHO made the announcement at a joint news conference on Tuesday with Uganda’s Ministry of Health.
But the declaration came roughly a month after Uganda had declared that the local outbreak was over, based on its own analysis of the virus’s spread.
“We had assessed the risk, we had assessed the whole chain of transmission and the dynamics of importation of the virus in the country, and we knew that we were free from Ebola,” Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary for Uganda’s Health Ministry, told national broadcaster NTV.
“However, WHO had to wait because that’s the process. That’s the guideline.”
Atwine called on countries that had imposed travel restrictions on Uganda during the outbreak to lift them.
“Unless they have other reasons, they should definitely lift the restrictions off the country, and Ugandans should be free to travel to any country,” she said.
Uganda reported 20 Ebola infections in total, with its last confirmed case recorded on June 21. Two people died from the virus during the outbreak.
The last patient was discharged from Mulago National Referral Isolation Centre on July 16, and the Health Ministry formally declared the outbreak over on July 28.
The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by contrast, is accelerating.
Confirmed cases in the DRC reached 5 656 as of August 25, an increase of 72 from a report released one day prior. A total of 2 715 deaths have been recorded, according to the latest government data cited by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Ituri province, in the northeast of the country, remains the epicentre of the outbreak, with more than 4 700 people infected.
Uganda shares a border with the northeast part of the DRC, stretching more than 877km (500 miles).
Kasonde Mwinga, the WHO’s representative for Uganda, said in Wednesday’s news conference that the country was supporting treatment and laboratory capacity at two sites across the border, in Aru and Kasenyi, both part of the Ituri province.
Mwinga added that the model for cross-border collaboration could be expanded regionally.
Already, Uganda has announced it would open two additional Ebola treatment centres in the DRC, bringing the total to four. — Al Jazeera
