Uganda declared free of deadly Marburg fever

Uganda's ministry of health Tuesday declared the East African country officially free of the deadly Marburg epidemic, which killed one health worker and left 197 people quarantined.

Sarah Achieng Opendi, the state minister for primary healthcare told reporters here that the declaration comes after the completion of 42 days of the post Marburg surveillance, which is a prerequisite before World Health Organization (WHO) declares a country free of any Viral Hemorrhagic Fever(VHF).

The outbreak of the fever was declared Oct 4 following laboratory tests done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, which confirmed that one person, a health worker, had died of the VHF.

The index case was a 30-year-old male radiographer, who originally was working in Mpigi Health Centre IV in the central Ugandan district of Mpigi, before being recruited at Mengo Hospital in Kampala. He died on Sep 28.

"The ministry of health informs the general public that since then, there have been no Marburg cases reported in the country. This implies that the Marburg outbreak in the country has completely been controlled," said Opendi.