WHO Chief in Uganda to Help Anti-Ebola Effort

AFP

8 June 2026 | 7:51

The WHO has declared an international health emergency over the current outbreak, which was announced on May 15 in the northeastern DRC.

Members of a Congolese Red Cross team wearing personal protective equipment carry the coffin of a woman suspected of having died from Ebola virus disease. Picture: AFP

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday was in Uganda, where a deadly Ebola outbreak has killed two people after spreading from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The WHO has declared an international health emergency over the current outbreak, which was announced on May 15 in the northeastern DRC.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently also visited the DRC, which has seen 515 confirmed Ebola infections, including 91 deaths, according to the UN health agency.

"I am in Uganda, where the government has mounted a prompt and capable response to the outbreak of Ebola," Tedros wrote on X.

"Screening at the borders helped detect cases arriving from neighbouring DRC, and the country's surveillance, testing and case management systems are doing steady work."

The WHO chief on Monday met a senior Ugandan health ministry official, a WHO spokesman in Geneva told AFP.

Tedros "is in the country to assess Uganda's readiness to respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak and to support efforts aimed at strengthening cross-border coordination to prevent further exportation of Ebola cases from Congo and to bring the outbreak to an end", Diana Atwine, permanent secretary for the health ministry, said on X.

"Of the 19 confirmed cases so far, 14 were among people who entered from DRC and five are Ugandan nationals," Tedros said on X.

"Sadly, two people from DRC have died, and our thoughts are with their families," he added.

On June 3, Tedros told reporters that one of the confirmed cases in Uganda was a Congolese citizen who had travelled to the United Arab Emirates before entering Uganda.

Two days later, the UAE announced it was banning entry to travellers arriving from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan under stepped-up precautionary measures.

"This includes travelers entering the UAE via transit through one or more other countries, unless they have spent more than 21 days outside the listed countries before arriving in the UAE," it said in a statement.

New visas for nationals of the three countries have also been suspended.

'BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL'

It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC, a vast central African country of more than 100 million people.

There is no specific vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo Ebola strain behind the latest outbreak.

Tedros said the WHO was supporting Uganda alongside the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners across the region "as the country leads this response".

"With continued collaboration, I am confident this outbreak can be brought under control," he added.

Ebola, which is spread through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The WHO and the African CDC on Friday launched a $518-million plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months.

The epicentre of the current outbreak is the DRC's northeastern Ituri province, a difficult-to-access region due to poor roads that is plagued by insecurity because of armed groups.