World Health Organization says Ebola outbreak in Uganda is over

Published On 26 Aug 202626 Aug 2026.

Key points

• The last patient was discharged from Mulago National Referral Isolation Centre on July 16, and the Health Ministry formally declared the outbreak over on July 28.
• Confirmed cases in the DRC reached 5, 656 as of August 25, an growth of 72 from a report issued one day prior.
• Kenneth Akiiri, the undersecretary for Uganda's Health Ministry, pressed the WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to mobilise further resources.
• Uganda documented 20 Ebola infections in total, with its last confirmed case recorded on June 21.
• Uganda shares a border with the northeast part of the DRC, stretching more than 877km (500 miles).

Uganda has been declared free of Ebola, with the World Health Organization (WHO) confirming that the East African country had passed the mandatory 42-day monitoring period without any new cases.

WHO created the announcement at a joint news conference on Tuesday with Uganda's Ministry of Health.

But the declaration came roughly a month after Uganda had declared that the local outbreak was over, based on its own analysis of the virus's spread.

"We had assessed the risk, we had assessed the whole chain of transmission and the dynamics of importation of the virus in the country, and we knew that we were free from Ebola, " Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary for Uganda's Health Ministry, informed national broadcaster NTV.

"Nevertheless, WHO had to wait as that's the process. That's the guideline."

Atwine called on countries that had imposed travel restrictions on Uganda during the outbreak to lift them.

"Unless they have other reasons, they should definitely lift the restrictions off the country, and Ugandans should be free to travel to any country, " she remarked.

Uganda documented 20 Ebola infections in total, with its last confirmed case recorded on June 21. Two individuals died from the virus during the outbreak.

For context, the last patient was discharged from Mulago National Referral Isolation Centre on July 16, and the Health Ministry formally declared the outbreak over on July 28.

In practice, the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by contrast, is accelerating.

Confirmed cases in the DRC reached 5, 656 as of August 25, an growth of 72 from a report issued one day prior. A total of 2, 715 deaths have been recorded, according to the latest administration data cited by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Ituri province, in the northeast of the country, remains the epicentre of the outbreak, with more than 4, 700 individuals infected.

Kasonde Mwinga, the WHO's representative for Uganda, remarked in Wednesday's news conference that the country was supporting treatment and laboratory capacity at two sites throughout the border, in Aru and Kasenyi, both part of the Ituri province.

Mwinga continued that the model for cross-border collaboration could be expanded regionally.

Already, Uganda has confirmed it would open two extra Ebola treatment centres in the DRC, bringing the total to four.

On Monday, Ugandan and Congolese authorities additionally met in Kampala to review a bilateral memorandum of understanding on cross-border health security.

"When you are vulnerable and you have littler resources, you are supposed to raise an alarm for help, " Akiiri remarked in a joint statement.

For his part, DRC delegation head Adelard Lufungula pressed robust action to combat the virus. "We want to fight Ebola like a war, " he remarked.

For now, world Health Organization says Ebola outbreak in Uganda is over remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.