Uganda is due to discharge its last Ebola patient on Thursday, triggering a 42-day countdown that \u200bcould see the country declared free of the \u200cvirus, a Spokesperson for the government said.<\/p>\n
The wider outbreak, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a public health emergency in the Democratic Republic \u200bof Congo (DRC) in May, has caused 2 011 confirmed cases \u200bof infection and 754 confirmed deaths in the \u2060DRC as of Wednesday, according to data from the \u200bgovernment.
\nAn online Ugandan Health Ministry portal on Thursday showed the \u200bnumber of recoveries stood at 17, with one current admission in an isolation unit and two deaths. It said five cases were \u200blocally acquired and 15 were imported.<\/p>\n
All cases are linked \u200bto the rare Bundibugyo strain and the WHO has said it is \u200cthe \u2060third-worst outbreak on record.<\/p>\n
Alan Kasujja, a Ugandan government Spokesperson, said in a post on X late on Wednesday that a patient would be released from an isolation unit at \u200bthe Mulago \u200bNational Referral \u2060Hospital, located in the country’s capital, on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Kasujja said the patient’s discharge would start \u200bthe clock on the WHO’s \u200brequired \u2060waiting period before an outbreak can be declared to be finished.<\/p>\n
“When that happens, Uganda starts counting down,” Kasujja said. “If 42 \u2060days \u200bpass without a single new case, \u200bWHO guidelines stipulate that we will be declared Ebola free.”<\/p>\n
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