On January 11, 2023, Uganda declared an end to the Ebola virus outbreak that emerged in September 2022 and claimed the lives of 55 people.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) criteria for declaring an outbreak of Ebola officially ended is when there are no new cases for 42 consecutive days (twice the incubation period of the Ebola virus).
Uganda’s Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, said “January 11 marked 113 days since the start of the epidemic. Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection prevention and control.”
In total, there were 142 confirmed cases and 56 confirmed deaths with children among the victims. According to health officials, the last confirmed Ebola patient was discharged from hospital on November 30, and in between over 4,000 contacts were followed up for up to 21 days.
In a statement from the director-general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Uganda was praised for its response to this outbreak: “Uganda has shown that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together, from having an alert system in place, to finding and caring for people affected and their contacts, to gaining the full participation of affected communities in the response.”