World Health Organization says Ebola outbreak in Uganda is over

What the report says

The World Health Organization has said Uganda’s Ebola outbreak is over after the country completed the required 42-day period without any new transmission. The announcement was made on Tuesday at a joint briefing with Uganda’s Ministry of Health, more than a month after Ugandan authorities had already declared the outbreak finished based on their own assessment.

According to Al Jazeera’s report, Uganda recorded 20 Ebola infections in the outbreak, with the last confirmed case on June 21. Two people died, and the final patient was discharged from an isolation centre on July 16. Uganda’s health ministry formally ended the outbreak on July 28. Health officials said the WHO confirmation follows the organization’s standard monitoring process, and Uganda’s health leadership called on countries that imposed travel restrictions during the outbreak to lift them.

The article also places Uganda’s situation alongside a worsening Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, where cases and deaths have continued to rise. Al Jazeera reported that the DRC outbreak is centred in Ituri province and that Uganda, which shares a long border with the country, is helping support cross-border treatment and laboratory work at sites in Aru and Kasenyi. Officials from both countries have also been discussing wider health-security cooperation.

The developments matter because Ebola response depends heavily on rapid containment, surveillance and cross-border coordination, especially in a region where movement between countries is common.