How Ebola caught Mubende Regional Referral Hospital off guard
In the memo, the Director reveals that laboratory findings from UVRI indicated that the patient on 15th September (patient died on Monday) tested positive for Ebola Sudan variant.
The news of an Ebola outbreak in Mubende district started spreading Monday afternoon, sending the country into panic mode. Even with the growing fears, the Ministry of Health stayed silent.
However, according to a memo by the Director Mubende Hospital addressed to all health units in the district, the management of the hospital got the red flags on 15th September when the facility noticed increased death especially attributed to fevers and bleeding.
The hospital dispatched a surveillance team to immediately investigate these and related cases.
Just as the surveillance was getting to work, on 15th September 2022 another patient was admitted to Mubende Hospital presenting with a profusion of blood from the mouth and nose, jaundice, diarrhoea and fever.
A meeting that sat on Saturday, 17th September, decided to isolate the patient to the Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) ward. Samples were collected from the patient and sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) for laboratory confirmation.
At the same time, a team was dispatched off to Madudu village to investigate the cause of the increasing deaths. The team received information from the community about the strange illnesses and, deaths which were verified further by Rapid Response Teams (RRT).
In the memo, the Director reveals that laboratory findings from UVRI indicated that the patient on 15th September (the patient died on Monday) tested positive for the Ebola Sudan variant.
“This is therefore to request you instruct your health workers, units/ health facilities departments to keep calm as we observe stern precautionary and infection prevention and control measures while doing our work. Renew their knowledge and increase their level of suspicion for VHF,” the Director wrote in the memo.
