WHO and Africa CDC declare Uganda free of Bundibugyo Ebola

The World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that Uganda has completed 42 days without a new confirmed Ebola case. That interval is the standard used to close an outbreak. The last patient, an imported case, left care on 16 July. There was no documented onward spread from that person.

Uganda declared an outbreak on 15 May. It recorded 20 confirmed Bundibugyo cases: 15 imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and five acquired locally among contacts and health workers. Two people died. Eighteen recovered. More than 800 contacts were followed. Kampala announced an end to local transmission on 28 July. WHO's representative, Kasonde Mwinga, made the international declaration almost a month later.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated the government. Africa CDC director-general Jean Kaseya called it a lesson for the continent and said the gain is not safe until transmission stops in Congo. Permanent Secretary Diana Atwine said travel curbs placed on Uganda after the first cases were still hurting the economy and should now be lifted.

The outbreak next door is not over

Congo's Bundibugyo outbreak is the one Uganda contained at the border. Government figures cited this week put confirmed cases there around 5,656 to 5,713 and deaths around 2,715 to 2,744, with contact tracing still missing most expected contacts. Africa CDC has already said the true count may be several times the official one. CEPI announced funding with Egypt's Minapharm for a Bundibugyo vaccine candidate in the same news cycle as the Uganda declaration.

Uganda has run two treatment centres inside Congo during this wave. The declaration in Kampala is a closed file on one side of the line, not on both.