Uganda Starts Preventive Campaign Against Ebola

The inaugural Ebola vaccination for healthcare and frontline workers in the five high risk districts in Uganda, started on Monday, 5 November.

The exercise seeks to forestall the spread of the Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) to Uganda from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo where the disease has killed scores since a renewed outbreak several weeks ago.

WHO’s representative in Uganda, Dr Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam explained that the vaccine is safe with an efficacy level of over 90 per cent and could remains effective in the body for 12 months.

Only 2,100 doses of the vaccine are available as donation from the US-based Merck Company through WHO and has been used in Guinea and DR Congo.

Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Health Minister told reporters on Friday that the country was still Ebola free and that her ministry was forestalling a propagation in high risk districts of Kabaraole, Bunyangabo, Kasese, Bundibugyo and Ntoroko.

The current outbreak of Ebola in DRC has killed 285 and is raging in the country’s north-eastern provinces that border Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.