FILE PHOTO: EU-IGAD-built Nimule Health Facility. (UNOPS)

The Ministry of Health has inaugurated a fully-equipped isolation facility in Nimule to advance surveillance and screening for deadly infectious diseases at the border point, amid ongoing Ebola and Mpox outbreaks in Uganda.

South Sudan has been on high alert for such epidemics in the last two months – when cases of Mpox and Ebola were recorded among some of its neighbors including Kenya, Uganda, DRC, and Central Africa Republic.

The facility constructed by IGAD with funding from the European Union has a 10-bed capacity for isolation, well equipped laboratory and services like ultrasound among others, this is according to an official.

Dr. Harriet Pasquale Akello, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health, said the facility will serve as a significant screening center for infectious diseases that may be exported or imported between neighbors South Sudan and Uganda.

Dr. Akello said the center will also provide treatment for any kind of infectious disease, and will serve as a training facility for simulation and preparedness plan for disease outbreaks in the country.

“The facility is well-equipped. It has all the needed equipment, including a well-equipped laboratory, equipment like ultrasounds and other key equipment needed, and it is built at the border to be able to serve both countries,” she said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“It will serve as a screening point for any infectious disease and also provide services such as treatment for any kind of infectious disease, and also it can serve as a training facility where we can do simulation training as a preparedness plan for any kind of outbreak.”

Dr. Akello further said the development is crucial in addressing public health emergencies especially those that come from across borders.

She added that the facility comes at significant moment when South Sudan is facing public health crises with two disease outbreaks of Mpox and Cholera.

She said the facility will build confidence in fighting health emergencies at the border entry points and the country at large.

“We have learned a lot from the COVID-19 experience. I remember when we received the first case and we did not know how to manage the case. The hospital was not prepared and people started running up and down.”

“But having this facility builds confidence among the healthcare workers to be able to manage any kind of infectious disease or any kind of re-emerging disease that can cross South Sudan at the border.”

As of 20 February 2025, a total of nine confirmed cases of Sudan virus disease of the Ebolavirus, including one death have been reported from Uganda, since the outbreak was declared on 30 January 2025.

Eight cases received care at treatment centers in the capital Kampala and in Mbale and were discharged on 18 February after two negative tests 72 hours apart.

Meanwhile, Uganda is also grappling with an Mpox outbreak and has so far recorded 2,209 confirmed Mpox cases and 13 deaths since July 2024.

South Sudan confirmed its first case and declared an Mpox outbreak on February 13 – months after the contagious disease was detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

The index case is a 31-year-old Ugandan national working for a local company in Juba. He is said to have been in his home country for a month before he returned and started exhibiting symptoms.