The Ebola virus outbreak that started late last year and has claimed the lives of at least 56 people is expected to come to an end, Uganda said on Monday.

The health ministry stated it would formally declare the end of the outbreak on Wednesday if no new cases are detected by Tuesday.

The World Health Organization states that a disease outbreak ends when there are no additional cases for 42 days in a row, which is double the length of the Ebola virus's incubation period.

The "declaration ceremony" will be held in Mubende, the outbreak's center area, according to a press release from the health ministry's spokesman, Emmanuel Ainebyoona.

The East African country of Uganda has recorded 142 confirmed cases and 56 fatalities since the newest epidemic in Mubende was notified on September 20. The sickness has also moved to the capital Kampala.

According to health officials, the last known patient was released from the hospital on November 30.

The virus's Sudan strain, for which there is presently no vaccination, is what has triggered the outbreak.

However, Uganda is currently testing three candidate vaccines: one from the Sabin Vaccine Institute in the United States, one from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), and one from Oxford University and the Jenner Institute in Britain.

The viral hemorrhagic illness Ebola frequently results in death. The disease was first identified in 1976, and it is called after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhea are the primary signs of human transmission by bodily fluids.

The difficulty of containing outbreaks increases in metropolitan settings.

Infected individuals do not become contagious until symptoms start to manifest, which can take anywhere between two and 21 days.

The most recent Ebola outbreak in Uganda, which has a flimsy border with the DRC, claimed at least five lives in 2019.

More than 11,300 persons were murdered by the biggest pandemic to hit West Africa between 2013 and 2016 alone. More than a dozen epidemics have occurred in the DRC, with the biggest one killing 2,280 people in 2020.