Aid workers responding to the virus. BBC/Reuters.
The Ebola outbreak that has ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread outside its borders as a five year old boy in Uganda has come down with the disease. BBC. The boy is said to have crossed the border last Sunday before falling ill and vomiting up blood. He was taken to a hospital and a diagnosis of Ebola virus was confirmed by the Ugandan government. The boy's family is being monitored, with two of them already showing Ebola like symptoms, and Ugandan officials have begun the process of contact tracing. Uganda has already vaccinated 4,700 health care workers in anticipation of the disease spreading. 1400 people have died in the current outbreak and over 2000 cases have been found.
Uganda has been in preparedness mode ever since the #Ebola outbreak was declared in DRC.— Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng (@JaneRuth_Aceng) June 11, 2019
Now, we move into response mode.
Please cooperate with our health,immigration and security officials to ensure effective screening to prevent spread of #Ebola to other parts of the country.
My Comment:
This was fairly predictable. With the virus spreading like wildfire in DR Congo it was only a matter of time before the virus spread beyond their borders. DR Congo has been unable to respond to the virus and it keeps spreading. Now it has spread to one of their neighbors.
Can Uganda handle it? I think they have a better chance of handling it then DR Congo does. Uganda is fairly stable by African standards. They don't have a massive active rebellion and their government is functional. I don't know how good their healthcare system is but it can't be any worse than DR Congo's.
The fact that they have already vaccinated several thousand of their health care workers is a good sign. That means that they can treat the infected fairly easily and without fear of getting infected themselves. They still have to take extreme caution as no vaccine is perfect but they will do better than they would have without the vaccine.
Right now the process of contact tracing has begun. The doctors and health care workers in Uganda will need to figure out who had contact with the boy and his family and isolate them in case they have been infected as well.
Ebola is spread mostly by contact with infected bodily fluid, with blood being the most common vector. Ebola victims bleed pretty horribly so if they were in the active phase of the disease they could have infected people. But if nobody had any contact with blood, people might be safe. There is some evidence that Ebola can spread through the air, but that happened under perfect laboratory conditions.
I think that Uganda will be able to get this outbreak under control. With their country being much more stable and less likely to attack aid workers, they have a good chance of isolating the infected and vaccinating the exposed. They should be able to keep this outbreak contained to the few people that crossed the border.
However, there is of course a chance that more people from DR Congo could cross the border bringing the disease with them. I think there is an argument to be made for more border controls between any country that borders the DR Congo, including Uganda.
Speaking of border controls there have been stories of people from the Congo crossing into America from the Mexican border. Some people are worried about the chance that they could bring Ebola with them. I agree it's a concern but it's much more likely to be a problem for Mexico or wherever these migrant first arrived in. Ebola has a long incubation period between 2 and 21 days so it's not impossible that these people could be infected. Once again, border control would help prevent this scenario, even if it is unlikely.
Can Uganda handle it? I think they have a better chance of handling it then DR Congo does. Uganda is fairly stable by African standards. They don't have a massive active rebellion and their government is functional. I don't know how good their healthcare system is but it can't be any worse than DR Congo's.
The fact that they have already vaccinated several thousand of their health care workers is a good sign. That means that they can treat the infected fairly easily and without fear of getting infected themselves. They still have to take extreme caution as no vaccine is perfect but they will do better than they would have without the vaccine.
Right now the process of contact tracing has begun. The doctors and health care workers in Uganda will need to figure out who had contact with the boy and his family and isolate them in case they have been infected as well.
Ebola is spread mostly by contact with infected bodily fluid, with blood being the most common vector. Ebola victims bleed pretty horribly so if they were in the active phase of the disease they could have infected people. But if nobody had any contact with blood, people might be safe. There is some evidence that Ebola can spread through the air, but that happened under perfect laboratory conditions.
I think that Uganda will be able to get this outbreak under control. With their country being much more stable and less likely to attack aid workers, they have a good chance of isolating the infected and vaccinating the exposed. They should be able to keep this outbreak contained to the few people that crossed the border.
However, there is of course a chance that more people from DR Congo could cross the border bringing the disease with them. I think there is an argument to be made for more border controls between any country that borders the DR Congo, including Uganda.
Speaking of border controls there have been stories of people from the Congo crossing into America from the Mexican border. Some people are worried about the chance that they could bring Ebola with them. I agree it's a concern but it's much more likely to be a problem for Mexico or wherever these migrant first arrived in. Ebola has a long incubation period between 2 and 21 days so it's not impossible that these people could be infected. Once again, border control would help prevent this scenario, even if it is unlikely.
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