Uganda has officially declared the end of its 2026 Ebola Disease outbreak, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.
"The Ministry of Health is pleased to announce that Uganda has officially declared the end of the 2026 Ebola Disease outbreak. Today, Uganda is Ebola-free," Minister of Health Dr. Chris Baryomunsi said at a media briefing.
The declaration follows the completion of the mandatory 42-day monitoring period, which began after the discharge of the last Ugandan national — a locally transmitted patient — on 16th June 2026.
Uganda first declared the Ebola outbreak on May 15, 2026, after the confirmation of imported cases from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
By the end of the outbreak, the country had registered 20 confirmed cases. Of these, 18 patients recovered while 2 lost their lives. Fifteen of the 20 cases were imported from the DR Congo.
Dr. Baryomunsi said the standard 42-day monitoring criterion used globally to declare outbreaks over "has served the global public health community well and remains an essential safeguard in outbreaks where transmission is uncertain or ongoing".
"Where an outbreak results from a fully characterised imported event and epidemiological closure has been conclusively demonstrated, a fixed time interval alone may no longer represent the only basis for determining that transmission has ended," he said.
He said the criterion may not always be the sole measure needed going forward.
