Ugandan health officials say they have noticed a drop in the number of Ebola infections, with no new cases reported for at least two weeks.

This is the first encouraging sign the rate of infection is losing momentum since the outbreak of the disease in September.

Kassanda District is one of the epicentres of the outbreak, which has claimed the lives of over 50 people in Uganda, with restrictions in place to check its spread.

In an interview with local media on Wednesday, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said there has been a noticeable downward spiral in Ebola cases since the first week of this month.

She also said no new infections have been reported in the capital Kampala and its outlying areas, including in Jinja and Masaka.

Her ministry said 141 cases of the haemorrhagic disease have been confirmed to date, but gave no reasons for the drop in the number of infections.

Last month, health ministers from nine African countries agreed on joint measures to stop the potential spread of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and beyond its borders.

An assessment – conducted by World Health Organisation (WHO) – found that the risk of the Sudan ebolavirus strain spreading to neighbouring countries was high due to cross border movements between Uganda and other countries.

The population is mobile due to trade, social and cultural connections.

In addition, the country hosts many refugees who continue to keep ties with their countries of origin.

Recognising the importance of collaborative efforts, the government of Uganda, with support from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and WHO hosted a high-level emergency ministerial meeting, in Kampala, on cross-border collaboration for preparedness and response to ebola disease outbreaks.

The meeting concluded with a communique in which health ministers and senior government officials from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda endorsed key measures to prevent the cross-border spread of the Sudan strain of the virus.

These include disease surveillance, contact tracing and monitoring, prompt alert notification, information sharing and training of emergency responders, as well as carrying out simulation exercises to enhance preparedness and response.

As no effective vaccine against the Sudan ebolavirus has been licensed yet, Ugandan health authorities have focused on supportive care for confirmed cases, alongside stepping up testing, surveillance, infection prevention and control, as well as collaborating with communities to support disease prevention measures.

There are at least six candidate vaccines for Sudan ebolavirus that are in different stages of development.

Three of them have Phase1 data (safety and immunogenicity data in humans), while the others are in the preclinical evaluation phase.

AE News