Kampala, Uganda – Ugandan Ministry of Health officials confirm the drop in new Ebola cases in the country.
Some of the districts in Uganda have gone up to two weeks without registering new infections.
This is a good sign for the country that has heightened its efforts to combat the deadly disease in the past two months.
The first case of Ebola was recorded in the Central District of Mubende on September 20th.
Mubende and Kassanda were considered the hotbed of Ebola’s spread and movement in and out of the districts was then restricted.
Late on Wednesday, Ugandan Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng cited the absence of new cases in the two districts in many days.
Speaking to local media NTV News she said that there has been a downward trend in the number of cases.
“We are also not seeing new cases in Kampala, in the greater Kampala metropolitan area, neither are we seeing cases in Masaka and Jinja,” she added.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, a spokesperson for the health ministry, told Reuters news agency on Thursday that Mubende had gone for at least 16 days without a new case.
The capital city, Kampala, has also not recorded new infections for at least two weeks.
The country has so far recorded 141 cases and 55 deaths,WHO and aid groups are also providing Uganda with assistance to cope with the outbreak.
Unlike the more common Zaire strain, which spread during recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, the virus circulating in Uganda is the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no proven vaccine.
Three candidate vaccines against the Sudan strain are however planned for a clinical trial in Uganda.