Uganda confirms 3 new Ebola cases, as 10 more countries ‘at risk’ of virus

Uganda has confirmed three new ⁠cases of Ebola, bringing ⁠the total number of infections in the country in this outbreak to five, as authorities stepped up contact tracing to try to contain the spread.

This comes as Africa’s public health agency warned on Saturday that 10 more countries are at risk as the highly contagious Bundibugyo strain of Ebola continues to spread from the epicentre in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The update from Uganda’s Ministry of Health came a day after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the Ebola risk assessment was being revised to “very high at the national level [in DRC], high at the regional level, and low at global level”.

Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths ‌have been recorded in DRC.

First responders in the Congolese province of Ituri say they lack basic supplies, which some have attributed to foreign aid cuts by major international donors, particularly the United States.

The WHO has said that late detection, the absence of a vaccine or virus-specific therapeutics, widespread armed violence and high mobility among the population make the DRC especially vulnerable.

Uganda suspended all public transport to the DRC on Thursday to help stem the flow of the virus.

At the beginning of the outbreak, Uganda identified two cases linked to the DRC. The new cases reported on Saturday include a driver who transported the country’s first ⁠confirmed patient and a health worker ⁠exposed while caring for that patient.

Both are receiving treatment and were identified among known contacts, Uganda’s Health Ministry said in a statement.

The third case is a woman ⁠from DRC who entered Uganda with mild abdominal symptoms and later travelled from Arua, close ⁠to the border, to Entebbe before seeking ⁠care at a private hospital in the capital, Kampala. The patient initially improved and returned to DRC, but later tested positive for Ebola after a follow-up prompted ‌by a tip-off from a pilot involved in transporting her.

All identified contacts linked to the confirmed cases are being closely monitored, ‌the ‌ministry said, urging the public to remain vigilant and report suspected symptoms.

“At this critical moment in the outbreak response, it is vital that authorities maintain high vigilance to control expansion of the virus,” WHO’s Tedros said on Saturday.

Ten countries ‘at risk’

“The WHO is working side by side with Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and partners in the DRC and Uganda, to contain the outbreak, support affected people, and bolster a coordinated response,” Tedros said.

Jean Kaseya, head of Africa CDC, on Saturday listed 10 countries “at risk” in the current outbreak: Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.

The Africa CDC held a meeting in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, to develop a coordinated approach to stop this disease from spreading further, said Al Jazeera’s Chris Ocamringa, reporting from Kinshasa, DRC.

“The health care systems in many African countries are very fragile; they’re not well funded, so they want to identify the gaps in some of these countries,” he said.

“The DRC is a classic example; When this outbreak in Ituri province happened, there was a delay in detecting the cases because the testing kits that authorities in the DRC had were configured to detect a different strain, the Zaire [Ebolavirus] strain, which is more common here”.

The Africa CDC is attempting to come up with “a harmonised strategy for all African countries to move on the same footing”, he said.

Another treatment tent is set ablaze

Meanwhile, in the heart of the outbreak, a tent used for Ebola treatment was set on fire for the second time this week, and 18 people suspected of infection escaped, a local hospital director in eastern DRC said.

Unidentified people arrived at the clinic in the town of Mongbwalu on Friday night and set fire to a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group, known by its French initials MSF, Dr Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital, told The Associated Press.

“We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff of the Mongbwalu Referral Hospital and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community,” he said.

On Thursday, another treatment centre in the town of Rwampara was burned down after family members were prohibited from retrieving the body of a local man.