Experts call for more investment in research for quick management of disease outbreaks in Uganda 

Health experts have highlighted the need for more investment in research and availability of resources for the easy management of any future outbreaks since the pandemics have a potential of destabilizing the country and the region at large.

The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng explained that readily available resources are one of the crucial lessons the country should learn from responding to outbreaks like Ebola because it facilitates quick deployment of health workers especially for surveillance and preparedness to contain the outbreak.

“Our country is prone to epidemics, and this idea of waiting for an epidemic to come and then we request for a supplementary, takes so long. That doesn't favour a quick response. The most important thing for our country is that we need to have readily available resources for epidemics,” she said.

She explained that an outbreak calls for the quick deployment of health workers in the fields as soon as it is declared, adding that based on where the country has come from, the lessons it has learnt and systems built, there is a very big gap in this area.

“If we can address that ,Uganda will be good at handling epidemics. Outbreaks like Ebola bring down economies very fast because immediately you declare, the tourists will postpone their coming and your neighbors will be scared that you are going to export Ebola. Investment in having vaccines readily available is extremely important,” she said.

The remarks were made during a syndicated live panel discussion on NBS Frontline on Thursday night. The discussion was under the theme, 'The end of the Ebola Sudan outbreak in Uganda.

This discussion came shortly after Uganda declared the end of the Ebola disease outbreak caused by Sudan Ebola virus less than four months after the first case was confirmed in the country’s central Mubende district on September 20 2022.

Aceng said Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection, prevention and control.

Dr. Miriam Nanyunja from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there is a need to invest in research because it is much easier to control outbreaks that have the medical countermeasures.

“You wouldn’t need the restricted movements if you have these products (the vaccines and medicines). It is important that we get more engaged in research to find some of the products that the country can use,” she said.

This was the country’s first Sudan Ebola virus outbreak in a decade, and its fifth overall for this kind of Ebola.  In total there were 142 confirmed  cases , 55 confirmed deaths, leaving 87 recovered patients, according to the ministry.

More than 4000 people who came in contact with confirmed cases were followed up and their health monitored for 21 days. Overall, the case-fatality ratio was 47%. The last patient was released from care on 30 November 2022, which is when the 42-day countdown till the end of the outbreak began. 

People in the hot-spot communities of Mubende and Kasanda experienced restricted movements as one of the measures to curb the disease.

 Aceng explained that the lessons learned and the systems put in place for this outbreak will protect Ugandans and others in the years ahead.

This Ebola outbreak was caused by the Sudan ebolavirus, one of six species of the virus, against which no therapeutics and vaccines have been approved yet.

However, Uganda’s long experience in responding to epidemics allowed the country to rapidly strengthen critical areas of the response and overcome the lack of these key tools. 

With no vaccines and therapeutics, this was one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks in the past five years, but the country stayed the course and continuously fine-tuned its response.