Abstract:
On 20th September 2022, the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MOH) declared an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever caused by the Sudan Ebola virus (SUDV) following laboratory confirmation of a patient from a village in Madudu sub-county, Mubende district [1]. EVD is highly contagious with a high mortality rate. By the end of the SUDV outbreak in Uganda on 11th January 2023 164 cases (probable and confirmed) were traced with 55 confirmed deaths [2]. Tis was the sixth reported
SUDV outbreak in Uganda since the first in 2000 where a cumulative total of 325 cases and 224 deaths were recorded. Overall case-fatality ratio (CFR) during the 2022 SUDV was 39% (55/142). Despite its recurrence
and high impact, SUDV appears to be neglected in terms of investment in research and development of medical countermeasures. The first documented EVD outbreak occurred in 1976 (47 years ago) in communities located near the Ebola river and was designated Ebola Zaire.
In the same year, an Ebola outbreak occurred in Sudan caused by a different virus strain that was designated SUDV. Since then, there have been several SUDV outbreaks, all in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [3]. The most deadly of all EVD outbreaks occurred in 2014–2016, in
West Africa, where 11,310 deaths and approximately 28,600 cases were recorded [3]. There is no specific treatment or vaccine for SUDV but it exists for the Zaire strain [1]. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address the current SUDV outbreak control gaps.
Keywords Ebola, Outbreak, Africa, Uganda, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan Ebola virus, Viral haemorrhagic fever, Biosecurity, Biosafety, Infection prevention and control
