Ebola's Return to Uganda: A Nurse's Tragic Fate

Ebola has made a grim comeback in Uganda. A 32-year-old male nurse, an employee of the main referral hospital in the capital Kampala, died due to the virus. The nurse had sought treatment at various locations. He was admitted to a public hospital in Mbale, a city in the east of Uganda. The virus was the Sudan strain of Ebola. It was confirmed after his death. 30 health workers and patients at Mulago Hospital are among the 44 contacts identified by the health authorities. Uganda's health officials are working hard to contain the outbreak. They are tracing contacts and urging the public to report any suspected cases. The response is crucial because the city has a highly mobile population of about 4 million people. The nurse who passed away had also visited a traditional healer. This shows how the outbreak can be affected by traditional medicine practices. This is not Uganda's first experience with Ebola. The country has seen multiple Ebola outbreaks, including one in 2000 that killed hundreds of people. The World Health Organization has stepped in to support Uganda's response. It will send an initial allocation of $1 million to aid in controlling the outbreak. The nurse's death marks the first Ebola fatality in Uganda since the country's last outbreak ended in early 2023. The last outbreak, which was discovered in September 2022, killed at least 55 people. The virus is spread by contact with bodily fluids or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and bleeding. The source of the current outbreak is still under investigation by Ugandan officials. The virus was discovered in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo. This was near a village close to the Ebola River. The 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was the largest death toll the disease has caused. It killed over 11, 000 people.