By KT Reporter
Despite lessons learned, health workers in Uganda continue to die during Ebola outbreaks, even 25 years after the first case.
An outbreak of Ebola disease was reported from Gulu district, Uganda, on 8 October 2000. The outbreak was characterized by fever and haemorrhagic manifestations, and affected health workers and the general population of Rwot-Obillo, a village 14 km north of Gulu town.
The outbreak that lasted for three months led to the death of Dr. Mathew Lukwiya, who contracted the virus from his patients.
Each year, a memorial lecture is held in honor of Dr. Mathew Lukwiya, described as a hero who gave his life battling Ebola. On Friday, the lecture was arranged by the Makerere School of Public Health.
The panel, chaired by Dr. Kambugu, explored crucial gaps in outbreak responses. Although Uganda has gained extensive outbreak experience over 25 years, there is still a persistent failure to protect health workers during Ebola outbreaks.
Lukwiya, on his deathbed, is reported to have lamented that “I am going to die now, I pray no one has to die of this disease again.”
But speaking on Friday, Dr Salome Okware, an Epidemiologist at the World Health Organization, said they have so far failed to achieve Lukwiya’s wish, noting that health workers are still getting infected, including in Uganda’s most recent outbreak, declared in January.
The Ebola epidemic in Uganda claimed the lives of Dr. Mathew Lukwiya and 24 other health workers in Gulu and six lives in Bundibugyo in 200.
While Uganda is hailed globally for being very first to mount a response, whereby it takes the country just one day, faster than the recommended seven days, Okware says health workers are still not yet taking individual initiative to treat every case with an index of suspicion.
Her concern was shared by Dr Andrew Kambugu, the Executive Director of the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), who urged health workers to build a culture of taking individual responsibility to protect themselves while dealing with highly infectious diseases.
Apart from the January outbreak that had a health worker die and several others infected, just before that, in the September 2022 Ebola outbreak in Mubende and the neighboring districts, 13 percent of the 164 people who got infected were health workers.
Dr. Misaki Wayengera, a Virologist at Makerere University, says health workers should appreciate that Uganda is a hotspot for emerging and re-emerging viruses and that, particularly, the Sudan Ebola Virus seems to be endemic to the country.
In 2022, when the Mubende outbreak happened, he acknowledged that there was some looseness as experienced responders were aging and needed to train a new breed of responders.
However, while health workers are still dying in Ebola outbreaks, officials in the Ministry of Health said they have a lot to celebrate when it comes to responding to outbreaks.
Dr Suzan Nabadda, the Commissioner of Laboratory Services, said that in 2000, when Dr Lukwiya died, it would take them almost two months to process results and confirm an outbreak.
In January, when Uganda had an outbreak that ended in less than three months after the virus was confirmed, she says they had results processed in just ten hours. A more comprehensive genomics report to determine whether the outbreak had a link with the previous outbreak took them twenty-four hours, she reports.
“That’s not all. When introducing the first mobile lab in Mubende, we feared health workers were going to be wiped out. But the lab tech was infected”.
Dr Lukwiya died on 5 December 2000, and the Memorial Lecture has been happening since 2002. During these lectures, health workers brainstorm and share experiences on what they have achieved, the challenges that persist, and what needs to be improved.
Since 2000, Uganda has experienced eight Ebola Virus Disease outbreaks in Northern, Western, and Central Uganda. Five of the outbreaks were caused by Ebola Sudan, 1 by Ebola Bundibugyo, and 2 by Ebola Zaire.
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