Uganda’s Health minister announced Tuesday that there is an Ebola virus “outbreak” in Uganda, resulting in the death of a man in central Uganda, three years after the last reported death.
Uganda confirms an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Mubende district. The confirmed case is a 24-year-old man (…) who presented with symptoms of EVD and subsequently succumbed,” the ministry said on its official Twitter account.
The case is from a “relatively rare” strain known as Sudanese, which had not been reported in Uganda since 2012, said WHO Africa, which said it was deploying “a team and equipment to assist in the investigation and response.”
The announcement “follows an investigation by the national rapid response team into six suspected deaths in (Mubende) district this month,” WHO said.
“There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility,” it added.
Uganda has experienced Ebola outbreaks before, with the most recent one in 2019 killing at least five people. In 2000, some 200 people died during an outbreak in the north of the country.
“The virus was imported from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, which was battling a major outbreak in its northeastern region,” WHO Africa said in a statement.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced 14 Ebola outbreaks, the last of which was declared between April and July 2022.
One case was reported in August in North Kivu province, bordering Rwanda and Uganda.