Uganda declared the outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Sudan ebolavirus. They refused to take the fight against the disease with a pinch of salt and due to the hardwork and dedication of the health workers and the citizens, in less than four months after the first case was confirmed in the country’s central Mubende district, Uganda has declared the end of the Ebola disease outbreak.

Uganda’s Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said “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. While we expanded our efforts to put a strong response in place across the nine affected districts, the magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak and took action”.

This was the country’s first Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in over a decade and the fifth overall for this kind of Ebola. People who came in contact with the virus were followed up and monitored for 21 days.

Even though there were some deaths, the amount of people that made full recovery surpassed the amount of deaths. Overall, the case fatality ratio was 47%.

The last patient was released from care on 30th of November when the 42-day countdown to the end of the outbreak began.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation said “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. Lessons learned and systems put in place for this outbreak will protect Ugandans and others in the years ahead.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said “with no vaccines and therapeutics, this was one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks in the past five years but Uganda stayed the course and continuously fine-tuned its response”.