Kampala: The World Health Organization (WHO) delivered 300 doses of Ebola vaccines for vaccination to the contacts of a 9-year-old girl who died of Ebola in the western district of Kasese following the second virus outbreak.
Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the WHO country representative in Uganda, told reporters here that the vaccines will be used to vaccinate possible contacts of the 9-year-old Congolese who succumbed to the deadly hemorrhagic fever at Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit early on Friday, Xinhua news reported.
“We shall [also] examine who are more at risk. This includes the health workers and frontline health workers and those doing the screening at the border,” he said.
Joyce Moriku Kaducu, Uganda’s state minister for primary health care, told reporters that four Congolese contacts who were transported in the same ambulance with the deceased from Mpondwe to Bwera ETU were on Friday morning repatriated to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for vaccination and effective follow-up.
The fifth contact who is the mother of the girl has returned to DRC this evening together with the body of the deceased for the funeral, said Moriku.
The 9-year-old female on Thursday tested positive of the deadly virus at Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit on Friday morning.
The deceased and her mother who hail from Lubhiriha in DRC’s Majengo district entered the east African country through the Mpondwe border to seek medical care at Bwera Hospital.
The child was identified by the point of entry screening team with symptoms of high fever, body weakness, rash, and unexplained mouth bleeding.
In June, Uganda confirmed three index cases of the highly contagious disease who crossed from neighbouring DRC into the east African country.
On July 24, the World Health Organization declared the end of the outbreak after 42 days of close monitoring.
The ministry of health on Thursday dispatched a rapid response team to Kasese to support the district teams to continue with various activities including case management, community engagement, contact tracing, psychological support and vaccination, among others.
Mortality rates of Ebola fever are extremely high, with the human case fatality rate ranging from 50 per cent to 89 per cent, depending on viral subtype, according to the global health body.
