WHO, Officials Say Uganda’s Latest Ebola Outbreak Is Over

Doctors wearing protective equipment pray together before they visit a patient who was in contact with an Ebola victim, in the isolation section of Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda, on Oct. 20, 2022. Hajarah Nalwadda/AP Photo

KAMPALA, Uganda—Uganda’s latest outbreak of the Ebola virus is over, the government and the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Health Minister Ruth Aceng told journalists that no new cases had been registered in the past 42 days.

This outbreak was the first in a decade of the less common Sudan strain which, unlike the Zaire strain that has caused outbreaks in neighboring Congo in recent years, has no proven vaccine or therapeutics.

Uganda had recorded 142 cases including 56 deaths since the outbreak was announced in September. Ebola, which can sometimes manifest as a hemorrhagic fever, spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials.

This was Uganda’s fifth outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola, the WHO said.

A medical worker disinfects a tent used for suspected Ebola victims inside the Ebola isolation center of Madudu Health Center III, in the village of Madudu, in the Mubende district of Uganda on Nov. 1, 2022. Hajarah Nalwadda/AP Photo