The Ebola epidemic in Uganda has worsened significantly and the country’s ability to contain the diffusion was seriously weakened by the freezing of the Trump administration on foreign assistance, they said American officials this week.
The officials, who represent a variety of health and safety agencies, carried out the evaluation during a meeting with the staff of the United States Embassy in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, Wednesday. An audio recording of the session was obtained by the New York Times.
There were two other dead, the mother and newborn brother of a 4 -year -old boy who died last week, said an American official. The mother and brother died before the 4 -year -old boy, but were not identified as probable cases of Ebola until they were buried through the late contact track.
Eighty -two people have so far been identified as close contacts of the mother and her two children, at high risk of infection, and 68 of them are now in quarantine while the others are still traced. The officials said that the ability of public health workers to trace their contacts and conduct surveillance for new cases is seriously hindered without assistance in the United States.
Two of the contacts are already symptomatic and have been admitted to a department of the insulation hospital, said an American official in Uganda during the meeting. The 4 -year -old boy was taken for care in four different health facilities before being diagnosed with Ebola, which means that many of those who have been potentially exposed to the virus are health workers.
During Wednesday’s meeting, American officials declared that the Ugandan government was also lacking in sufficient laboratory supplies, diagnostic equipment and protective equipment for medical operators and people who traced the contacts. The resolution of grants by the US agency for international development was preventing the ability to obtain such supplies, said an official. The meeting, conducted for video, was attended by representatives of the State Department, Usaid, Department of Defense, Embassy of the United States in Uganda and Centers for the control and prevention of diseases.
A commentary on the concerns expressed in the meeting, a spokesperson for the State Department sent an E -mail in which he said that the United States government was working with Uganda and other partners “to quickly contain this outbreak and identify the evolution needs”. The collaboration of both governments said: “So far it has minimized the impact of this outbreak on US citizens”.
The epidemic was caused by a strain of the Ebola virus for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. So far it has caused four dead, 12 confirmed cases and two suspicious infections. Public health experts say that it could worsen a lot without adequate resources to control it.
The Africa centers for the control of diseases declared on Thursday that there were five cases in the cluster that includes the 4 -year -old, three confirmed and two probable. Although these cases were far from the original ones, the genomic sequencing suggested that the same virus had caused the new ones.
The epidemic was declared on January 30, after the death of a 32 -year -old nurse in Kampala who sought treatments in several important hospitals across the country and also consulted a traditional healer in the Eastern District of Mbale.
It was the first time that the first case in a outbreak was identified in the capital, which has a population of about six million people, placing added challenges for containment and raising significant concerns about the virus potential to spread quickly in densely populated urban areas. In the meeting. US officials expressed concern about the fact that there has been no investigation into non -traumatic deaths in Kampala to determine if more they may have been caused by the Ebola.
Dr. Herbert Luswata, president of the Uganda Medical Association, said that the response to the Obola was seriously hindered by the absence of the support of the United States and that the Uganda health system was significantly less prepared and reactive than it had been during the last outbreak of Ebola, in 2022.
Dozens of medical operators enrolled to help treat patients in 2022, he said. Now, the lack of funds and deficiencies in protective equipment has left many fear of helping this time, especially in high -risk isolation units.
In the current outbreak, he said: “Without Usaid and CDC competence, it was as if the Uganda was left to die”.
This week, the United Nations have started an emergency appeal to collect $ 11.2 million to help Uganda contain the Ebola epidemic, since US aid cut the nation’s health balance.
On February 26, Elon Musk told the members of the cabinet that after having “accidentally” canceled the support of the United States to contain Ebola, his team at the Government’s efficiency department had “restored the prevention of the Obola immediately and there was no interruption”. However, four of the five contracts for the work relating to the Obola were in fact cut.
Two were restored, a member of the embassy staff told his colleagues during the meeting on Wednesday, but the two who were not restored were “most of the USAID assistance” – $ 1.6 million on $ 2.2 million.
In the meeting, a member of the USAID staff showed up saying that he had taken the emergency epidemic file after his predecessor had been put on administrative leave. He said: “Our intent is to get answers on the critical prizes that are rekindled, we are working on it but we do not have solid updates right now”.
An official expressed concern about the surveillance of regional diseases, for which the critical support of the United States was interrupted last week.
“With the stop-work order and the resolution of the prizes there is no longer a programming, so the future perspectives are now worrying and this is what we are listening to from regional preparation groups,” he said.
Then another official jumped into the conversation to say that there were large reasons for concern, given the other outbreaks of diseases of the region, including one of the Marburg disease, another viral hemorrhagic fever – and its significant movement of people through the terrestrial borders.
None of the cases in the new cluster of ebola infections and deaths had been identified as contacts from the original cases, highlighting the weakness of the current surveillance system.
From the beginning, the declaration of this Focola di Ebola has shaken medical operators at national level.
At the regional reference hospital of Mbale, where the nurse in the first case identified had sought medical treatment, the doctors complained of the scarcity of supplies to reduce the risk of exposure and transmission, including masks, disinfectants for the hands, gloves, face shields and thermometers. Many have refused to deal with patients until they got so necessary prevention materials.
There have been no funds for at least two days to distribute a surveillance system or make an effective contact trace of contact with a Mbale, according to two doctors who worked in the hospital who requested anonymity because the government asked the medical personnel not to speak with the press.
Although there are no approved vaccines for this ebola strain, two experimental vaccines have been distributed in Uganda and more than 250 contacts of infected people have been vaccinated.
But even if they strive to contain the epidemic, the health officials have hesitated to impose serious restrictions due to the persistent anger from the measures put in place during the Covidic pandemic. Tourism officials also urged the government not to limit travel for fear that would decide to jobs.
The disinformation on the Ebola persists in the public, with many who consider the epidemic as a tactic to guarantee foreign aid or consolidate the part of the party to power while the electoral season begins. Kampala’s doctors also criticized the country’s ministry of health and its partners to be less transparent with information during this ebola outbreak compared to the previous ones.
The Government of Uganda rejected the accusations according to which his efforts to respond to the Abola were hindered, calling them “unfounded”. Henry Kyobe Bosa, an epidemiologist who supervises the response to the ABOOL of the Ministry of Health, said that the authorities quickly detected cases, identified the contacts and put them in quarantine. In addition, close contacts of No-Fly lists were added to prevent them from leaving the country, he said.
“We worked for Overdrive,” Bosa said in an interview. “We took it right at the beginning.”