4 year old child the second victim of Uganda’s Ebola outbreak
A four-year-old child has died of Ebola in Uganda’s outbreak of the disease, which was announced in January 2025.
According to AfricaNews, the World Health Organisation (WHO) publicly announced the child’s death on March 1st.The death has been regarded as a setback after health officials thought the disease was fully “contained” as eight recovered after treatment.
The child died at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, which is the only hospital in the country that treats cases of Ebola,the other victim was a male nurse who died a day before the outbreak was officially declared on January 30th.
Symptoms of Ebola include headaches, fevers, muscle pain, and bleeding, it is transmitted via contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue.
Uganda have been working with the WHO to strengthen their contact tracing initiative, which is key in stopping the spread of Ebola.
There are currently no approved vaccines for this Ebola strain, though a vaccination trial has begun in Uganda.
Uganda has been given around $3 million by the WHO to support their Ebola response, despite this there are concerns about funding for outbreak management and contact tracing after Donald Trump cut funding to USAID.
The last outbreak in Uganda was discovered in September 2022, it killed least 55 people before it was contained in January 2023.
Over 15,000 people have died of Ebola in Africa over the past 50 years.
Ebola was originally discovered in 1976 after simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, occurring in a village near the Ebola River.
AfricaNews, Maghrebi, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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