Could the whole world shut down yet again? The World Health Organization (WHO) and Uganda’s health ministry both announced on Tuesday that an epidemic of the relatively uncommon Sudan strain of Ebola had been declared in the country. In Uganda’s central Mubende district, a 24-year-old male experienced symptoms of Ebola before passing away from the Sudan starin.
Uganda confirms an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Mubende District, Uganda.
The confirmed case is a 24 year old male a resident Ngabano village of Madudu Sub County in Mubende District presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed. pic.twitter.com/36i9xyxdxm— Ministry of Health- Uganda (@MinofHealthUG) September 20, 2022
Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary of the health ministry, said during a news conference, “We want to inform the country that we have an epidemic of Ebola which we confirmed yesterday. She claimed the confirmed case’s patient had a high fever, diarrhea, gastrointestinal pain, and was spewing blood. He had initially received malaria treatment.
According to a statement from the WHO’s Africa division, there are currently eight suspected cases being treated in a medical facility. It also stated that it was assisting Uganda’s health officials with their investigation and sending staff to the affected area.
Reuters had these details to share about the recent outbreak in Uganda:
“Uganda has experience with efficient Ebola control. We were able to immediately identify the virus because of its expertise, and we can rely on this information to stop the spread of diseases “Regional Director for WHO Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, stated. According to the WHO, the Ebola Sudan strain had previously caused seven outbreaks, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.
In 2012 and 2019, respectively, Uganda last reported outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan and Ebola Zaire strains. In recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere, the WHO reported that ring vaccination of high-risk individuals with the Ervebo vaccine had been extremely effective in controlling the spread of Ebola. However, this vaccine had only been approved to protect against the Zaire strain. It said that although a different Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) vaccination has not yet been explicitly examined against the Sudan strain, it may be effective.
The new outbreak has many people raising eyebrows and asking questions about how this new strain came to be. In 2012 under the Obama administration an outbreak occurred in the Republic of Congo which then spread to Texas. A total of 14 Americans ended up contracting Ebola and two of them passed away from the disease. On the bright side, however, the entire economy was never shut down because of the outbreak, unlike Covid-19.
“This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain" – Dr Matshidisohttps://t.co/Va7bLz0Kcv
— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) September 20, 2022
Scientists are still unsure where the origin of the Ebola virus comes from but just like Covid-19 they believe it originated from bats. The virus is also believed to originate from other animals such as apes and monkeys. Just like Covid-19 some people believe Ebola was derived from a library. The NCBI had these details to add:
Another subject that may cause a plethora of arguments is that this virus may be a laboratory generated virus. It may be assumed that all these could be a conspiracy or scaremongering theory. Nevertheless, scientists do not know much about this virus except a few basic characteristics. The virus depletes the body’s immune cells and its organs. Notwithstanding the high fatality rates, there are some people who survive and recover completely from EVD’s infections. Furthermore, several research projects have led to the conclusion that some people may be explicitly resistant to Ebola infections due to a mutation in the NPC1 gene. Yet, we barely know anything about this virus.
If scientists aren’t downplaying Ebola could have derived from a lab neither should we!