A second illness cluster has been identified in Uganda's Ebola Sudan outbreak, with the latest cases linked to the recently reported death of a 4-year-old boy from the virus, officials from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said today.
Both newly confirmed patients are undergoing treatment, the agency said.
Ngashi Ngongo, MD, MPH, PhD, principal adviser to the Africa CDC's director-general and its mpox incident manager, said at a briefing today that there are no direct epidemiologic links between the new cluster and the last one. He added, however, that genetic sequencing shows that the same strain is involved, which likely rules out a new jump from animals and suggests that undetected transmission is highly likely.
Besides the boy, two other cases were confirmed, which follow a report yesterday from the World Health Organization African regional office that the boy's mother had died a few weeks earlier after an acute illness after giving birth. The baby died about a week later, and lab tests weren't conducted before they were buried. The WHO said the two are now considered as probable cases.
Fourteen cases from 5 districts
The new developments push the outbreak total to 14 cases, 12 confirmed and 2 listed as probable—involving the mother of the 4-year-old and her baby. Two deaths are reported among the confirmed cases, involving the index patient, who was a healthcare worker, and the 4-year-old boy, who recently died.
Five districts are now affected, up from three in the Africa CDC's last report.
Mosoka Papa Fallah, PhD, acting director of the science and innovation directorate at Africa CDC, said the two newly confirmed patients are isolated and receiving treatment.
Officials said 69 new contacts have been identified and are under monitoring.
Probe to uncover earlier infections
Fallah said intensive efforts are under way to better identify how the outbreak started. Retrospective serosurveys will be done among the earlier contacts to assess via antibodies detected in the blood if any were exposed to the virus earlier. He also said health officials will be doing a deeper dive into medical records that involve illness clusters and deaths.
The outbreak was first announced at the end of January, and, within days, Uganda's health ministry, with support from its partners, launched a trial of a candidate Ebola vaccine developed by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a nonprofit vaccine research organization based in New York City. Officials said today that 264 contacts have been vaccinated so far. The delivery of 2,000 doses of the antiviral drug remdesivir for treatment is ongoing.
Uganda is battling its sixth Ebola Sudan outbreak and its first since 2022. Ngongo today emphasized that this is the first to affect Kampala, the country's capital.
