Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has officially announced an increment of $2 million to Uganda’s fund aiding the battle against the recent Ebola outbreak. The statement, shared via a popular social media platform, reveals that WHO has thus far devoted a total of $3 million within a three-week span, to assist Uganda’s national health authorities in effectively curbing and ultimately eliminating this perilous health crisis.
The additional funds are aimed at fortifying various aspects of the response to the outbreak in the East African nation. Directly stated by Ghebreyesus, the financial assistance will bolster initiatives such as ‘surveillance, laboratories, logistics, infection prevention and control in hospitals, treatment centers, and research’. Prior to this, on January 30, WHO had initially disbursed $1 million and expedited the provision of trial vaccines, in a concentrated effort to contain and terminate the new wave of Ebola outbreak in Uganda.
A state of emergency was declared in Uganda, following the unfortunate demise of a 32-year-old male nurse from Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, who fell victim to the Ebola virus. According to Uganda’s Ministry of Health, several more individuals have since been diagnosed with Ebola, recording nine laboratory-confirmed infections, inclusive of one death. There are also at least 265 contacts of the initial case currently under close watch.
The Ebola virus belongs to the Ebolavirus genus and causes a form of viral hemorrhagic fever. Onset symptoms mimic those of influenza but can deteriorate to severe vomiting, hemorrhaging and nerve issues. Initially transmitted from bats, nonhuman primates, and antelope, Ebola assumes a human-to-human transmission mode, often leading to large-scale outbreaks particularly in certain African regions.
Despite its rarity, the world has witnessed regular outbreaks since the virus’s discovery in 1976 in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). The most devastating outbreak recorded was from 2014 to 2016, resulting in 28,646 cases and 11,323 deaths spread across 10 countries.