by The outbreak of Ebola in Uganda has deteriorated considerably and the country’s ability to control the spread is seriously weakened by the freezing of the Trump government on foreign help, said American officials this week.
The officials, who represent a variety of health and security agencies, made the assessment during a meeting with American embassy staff in Kampala, the Ugandan Capital, on Wednesday. An audio recording of the session was obtained by the New York Times.
There have been two more dead, the mother and newborn brother or sister of a 4-year-old who died last week, said an American officer. The mother and brother or sister died earlier than the 4-year-old, but were not identified as likely Ebola cases until they were buried by late contact tracing.
Two -like people have so far identified as close contacts of the mother and her two children, with a high risk of infection, and 68 of them are now in quarantine while the others are still being traced. The officials said that the ability of public health workers to trace their contacts and to supervise new matters is seriously hindered without American aid.
Two of the contacts are already symptomatic and were admitted to a hospital department of Isolation, an American officer in Uganda said at the meeting. The 4-year-old was used for treatment at four different health facilities before he was diagnosed with Ebola, which means that many of those who may have been exposed to the virus are health workers.
During the meeting on Wednesday, American officials said that the Ugandan government also missed insufficient laboratory supplies, diagnostic equipment and protective equipment for medical employees and people tracing contacts. The termination of subsidies from the US Agency for International Development hindered the ability to obtain those supplies, an officer said. The meeting, performed by video, was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, USAID, the Ministry of Defense, the American embassy in Uganda and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Asked for comments on the worries in the meeting, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent an e -mail and said that the US government worked with Uganda and other partners “to quickly comprehend and develop this outbreak.” The collaboration of both governments, the statement said: “So far has minimized the impact of this outbreak on American citizens.”
The outbreak was caused by a voltage of the Ebola virus for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. So far it has caused four deaths, 12 confirmed cases and two suspected infections. Health experts say that it can get much worse without sufficient resources to control it.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control said on Thursday that there were five cases in the cluster, including the 4-year-old, three confirmed and two likely. Although these cases were far from the original were, genomic sequencing suggested that the same virus had caused the new one.
The outbreak was declared on January 30, after the death of a 32-year-old nurse in Kampala who sought care in several large hospitals in the entire country, and also a traditional healer in the eastern Mbale district consulted.
It was the first time that the first case was identified in an outbreak in the capital, who has a population of around six million people, who formed additional challenges for inclusion and expressed considerable concern about the potential of the virus to quickly spread in densely populated urban areas. In the meeting. American officials expressed their concern that there was no research into non -traumatic deaths that took place in Kampala to determine whether more may have been caused by Ebola.
Dr. Herbert Luswata, president of the Uganda Medical Association, said that the Ebola response was heavily impeded by the absence of American support and that the health system of Uganda was remarkably less prepared and responsive than during the last Ebola outbreak, in 2022.
Dozens of medical employees are registered to help patients treat in 2022, he said. Now the lack of funds and shortages in protective equipment has left much scared to help this time, especially in risky insulation units.
In the current outbreak, he said: “Without USAID -money and CDC expertise it was as if Uganda had been left to die.”
This week, the United Nations started an appeal to emergency situations to collect $ 11.2 million to help Uganda contain the Ebola outbreak, because US AID ignores the health budget of the nation.
On 26 February, Elon Musk Cabinet members said that after “accidentally” to cancel the American support for efforts to contain Ebola, his team from the Ministry of Government Efficiency “the Ebola prevention had immediately restored and there was no interruption”. However, four out of five contracts for Ebola-related activities were actually cut.
Two have now been restored, an employee of the embassy told his colleagues during the meeting on Wednesday, but the two who were not recovered were “the majority of USAID – help” – $ 1.6 million out of $ 2.2 million.
During the meeting, an USAID employee introduced himself by saying that he had taken over the emergency outbreak file after his predecessor had been placed on administrative leave. He said: “Our intention is to get answers to critical prices that are called in again, we are working on that, but we don’t have any solid updates now.”
One official expressed concern about regional disease supervision, for which critical American support was terminated last week.
“With the stop-work order and the termination of prices, there is no longer programming, so the future prospects are now worrying and that is what we hear from regional readiness groups,” she said.
Then another civil servant jumped in the conversation to say that there was sufficient reason for concern in view of the other outbreaks of the region – including one of Marburg’s disease, another viral hemorrhagic fever – and the important movement of people about land borders.
None of the cases in the new cluster of Ebola infections and deaths had been identified as contacts from the original cases, which emphasizes the weakness of the current security system.
From the start, the explanation of this Ebola outbreak has rattled medical employees nationally.
In the Mbal Regional Referral Hospital, where the nurse had asked medical attention in the first identified case, doctors complained about the scarcity of supplies to reduce the risk of exposure and transmission, including masks, hand anitizers, gloves, face differences and thermometers. Many refused to attend patients until they received much needed prevention materials.
There were no money for at least two days to use a security system or to do effective contact tracing in Mbale, according to two doctors who worked in the hospital who asked for anonymity because the government asked medical staff for not talking to the press.
Although there are no approved vaccines for this Ebola tribe, two experimental vaccines were used in Uganda and more than 250 contacts of infected people have been vaccinated.
But even while they strive to control the outbreak, health officials have hesitated to impose serious limitations due to persistent anger of measures taken during the COVID Pandemie. Tourism officials have also urged the government not to limit travel for fear that jobs would decimate.
Wrong information about Ebola continues to exist among the public, where many consider the outbreak as a tactic to obtain foreign help or to consolidate the grip of the ruling party as the election season starts. Doctors in Kampala have also criticized the Ministry of Health of the Land and his partners because they are less transparent with information during this Ebola outbreak compared to previous.
The government of Uganda has rejected accusations that its Ebola response efforts have been hindered and calling them ‘unfounded’. Henry Kyobe Bosa, an epidemiologist who supervises the Ebola response from the Ministry of Health, said that the authorities had quickly detected things, had identified contacts and had placed in quarantine. Moreover, close contacts were added to no-fly frames to prevent them from leaving the country, he said.
“We worked overdrive,” Mr Bosa said in an interview. “We’ve been doing well in the beginning.”
