The Ebola epidemic in Uganda is over, the World Health Organization and the Ugandan Ministry of Health have announced. The epidemic began less than four months ago and claimed the lives of 55 people.
“We have successfully controlled the Ebola epidemic in Uganda,” Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said at a ceremony in Mubende, the epidemic’s epicentre.
According to the WHO, an epidemic is contained if there are no new cases for 42 successive days – twice the development period of Ebola. The last patient left the hospital on November 30.
“Uganda today stated the end of the Ebola epidemic,” the WHO said. However, 142 cases have been confirmed in the country. Fifty-five people died. The disease emerged in central Uganda on September 20.