Concerned about Ebola, Uganda extends quarantine in outbreak epicenter for 21 days

Uganda has extended a quarantine placed on two districts that are the epicenter of the country’s Ebola outbreak by 21 days, with the government asserting its response to the disease was succeeding.

The extension is “to further sustain the gains in control of Ebola that we have made, and to protect the rest of the country from continued exposure,” Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said. The East African nation has so far recorded 141 infections and 55 deaths since the outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever was declared on 20 September.

Movement in and out of the two districts in central Uganda will be restricted up to 17 December, the presidency said. “It may be too early to celebrate any successes, but overall, I have been briefed that the picture is good,” Museveni said in a statement.

The government has also decided to close schools nationwide two weeks before Christmas holidays to curb the spread of Ebola. Although the outbreak was gradually being brought under control, the “situation is still fragile,” Museveni said, adding that the country’s weak health system and circulation of misinformation about the disease were still a challenge.

The Ebola virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain, for which there is no proven vaccine, unlike the more common Zaire strain, which spread during recent outbreaks in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.