KAMPALA, July 16 (Reuters) – Uganda is due to discharge its last Ebola patient on Thursday, triggering a 42-day countdown that could see the country declared free of the virus, a spokesperson for the government said.
The wider outbreak, which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in May, has caused 2,011 confirmed cases of infection and 754 confirmed deaths in the DRC as of Wednesday, according to data from the government.
An online Ugandan health ministry portal on Thursday showed the number of recoveries stood at 17, with one current admission in an isolation unit and two deaths. It said five cases were locally acquired and 15 were imported.
All cases are linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain and the WHO has said it is the third-worst outbreak on record.
Alan Kasujja, a Ugandan government spokesperson, said in a post on X late on Wednesday that a patient would be released from an isolation unit at the Mulago National Referral Hospital, located in the country’s capital, on Thursday morning.
Kasujja said the patient’s discharge would start the clock on the World Health Organization’s required waiting period before an outbreak can be declared to be finished.
“When that happens, Uganda starts counting down,” Kasujja said. “If 42 days pass without a single new case, WHO guidelines stipulate that we will be declared Ebola free.”
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
