Uganda declares end to latest Ebola outbreak

What the report says

The Punch, citing Reuters/NAN, reported that Uganda’s Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi on Tuesday declared the country free of Ebola after a recent outbreak that infected 20 people and killed two. The announcement came on July 28, 2026, after health authorities completed the required 42-day observation period without detecting another case.

According to the report, the outbreak was declared in mid-May. Fifteen of the confirmed infections were linked to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, described in the article as the centre of a wider epidemic with more than 3,000 confirmed cases. The Punch reported that the last Ebola patient in Uganda, a Congolese national, was discharged on June 22, while the monitoring period used for the declaration began after the last Ugandan national infected through local transmission was discharged on June 16.

Officials said 18 of the 20 patients recovered and left treatment, while the two deaths involved nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Baryomunsi said Uganda’s Ministry of Health kept up intensive surveillance across the country during the monitoring window and found no additional infections.

The report noted that Uganda has faced several Ebola outbreaks since its first recorded epidemic in 2000, but health authorities say the country has built stronger capacity to contain recent flare-ups quickly. As general context, Ebola is a severe viral disease that can spread through contact with infected bodily fluids; Uganda’s forested areas and regional cross-border movement remain important risk factors for future outbreaks.