Overview
- Uganda's health ministry announced on Tuesday that intensive nationwide surveillance found no new Ebola cases and that the 42-day threshold to declare the outbreak over had been met.
- Uganda recorded 20 confirmed infections and two deaths during the episode, and case investigations show 15 of those infections were acquired in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The DRC remains the epicentre with more than 3,200 reported infections and roughly 1,400 deaths, and the current surge is linked to the Bundibugyo Ebola variant for which there are no licensed vaccines or targeted treatments.
- Response teams in eastern DRC face large obstacles from armed violence, strikes by unpaid health workers, population displacement and illegal mining, all of which have made contact tracing and isolation much harder.
- Community attitudes are shifting toward more cooperation with response teams, but continued cross-border movement and the DRC’s accelerating outbreak mean regional coordination and sustained surveillance are still essential.