Vaccination of frontline health workers against Ebola virus starts in northwestern Uganda

 Uganda on Tuesday started the Ebola vaccination exercise covering 2,500 frontline health workers at Adjumani district in its northwestern West Nile sub-region bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.

The exercise began with frontline health workers and would be rolled out subsequently to the public, Henry Lulu, Adjumani district health officer, told reporters.

"We have received 400 doses of vaccines for Adjumani district as we launched this exercise today. More doses of vaccines are being brought to cover all the six districts in the West Nile sub-region," said Lulu.

Adjumani District Woman Councilor Irene Adrupio also told journalists that frontline health workers save people's life first, so it's necessary to keep them safe and do their routine work without fear of contracting communicable diseases.

Last year in December, Uganda received 1,200 doses of Ebola trial vaccines from the World Health Organization for a clinical trial aimed at fighting the Sudan strain of the virus that hit the country in September.

Uganda declared the end of the Sudan Ebola virus disease outbreak on Jan. 11 after 42 days without any new cases reported.