Uganda’s Ebola Count Rises to 16 as Outbreak Spreads

Facts

• Ugandan officials said on Sunday that its Ebola caseload increased to 16 people while a further 18 people also likely had the disease. Fears are increasing of a serious outbreak on the horizon.
• Four people have already died from the virus, and a vaccine for the current strain that is spreading has not yet been found.
• Uganda authorities said that this current outbreak, which is attributed to the ‘Ebola Sudan’ strain, appears to have started in a small village in Mubende district around the beginning of September. The first casualty of this most recent outbreak was a 24-year-old man who died last week.
• According to the WHO, the efficacy of the vaccine against the rare Sudan strain is unclear. However, the Ervebo vaccine has been found to be effective in protecting against the ‘Zaire variant’ of the Ebola virus, which killed 2.3K during a 2018–2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Uganda has experienced four previous Ebola outbreaks, the deadliest of which left over 200 people dead in 2000.

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera, FOX News, and CNN.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Al Jazeera. This current outbreak is a serious health risk to the nations of Central Africa. Ebola is a highly lethal disease, and the fact that there is no well-tested vaccine for this strain makes the stakes even higher. Outbreaks are difficult to contain, and dealing with the spread of Ebola must be a top priority for regional and international bodies.
• Narrative B, as provided by Polifact. As history proves, the media has a penchant for exaggerating the risks that infectious diseases like Ebola pose to the world. Obviously, this is serious, but politicians and media entities have a habit of exploiting public health emergencies for their own ends, like a mass panic regarding Ebola in 2014. The international community has plenty of tools to handle flare-ups like this.

Predictions