Uganda discharges last Ebola patient; DR Congo outbreak worsens

42 days after the discharge of the last recovered patient, the country is considered Ebola-free. In neighboring DR Congo, however, the situation is spiraling out of control.

16 July 2026

Uganda discharged its last Ebola patient from the hospital on Thursday. Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi personally traveled to the state-run Mulago Hospital in the capital Kampala to hand a certificate to the recovered patient, whose name is not to be released. This officially confirms that he has recovered from the deadly viral disease.

"From today, the countdown begins," said Health Minister Baryomunsi. According to official regulations of the World Health Organization (WHO), a country is only officially declared Ebola-free 42 days after the discharge of the last patient. 42 days is twice the incubation period of Ebola. This is to ensure that no further infections occur.

Only two patients died from Ebola – Uganda sees this as a success

Uganda has not tested any new cases for 12 days. According to the Ministry of Health, all of the 20 Ebola cases Uganda had registered since the outbreak in May were imported from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Of the infected:

• 15 were Congolese
• 5 were Ugandans who had contracted the virus from Congolese

"Only" two patients died. Uganda sees this as a success.

More than 2,000 Ebola patients in DR Congo

"What we see here in Uganda is a different situation from the current one in the Democratic Republic of Congo," emphasized Health Minister Baryomunsi, urging continued caution and vigilance. Rightly so: because the situation in the neighboring country, where the epicenter of the current outbreak is located near the Ugandan border, appears to be increasingly spiraling out of control.

Meanwhile, over 2,000 patients in Congo have tested positive for Ebola, and over 700 have died so far from the deadly fever disease that causes internal bleeding. Alarmingly, the virus is being detected in more and more provinces – most recently in:

• The northeastern province of Haut-Uélé along the border with South Sudan
• The province of Tshopo near the border with the Central African Republic

Both neighboring countries, like Congo, have been at war for decades, and in both countries the healthcare system is equally dilapidated and underfunded – a combination that makes combating the outbreak enormously difficult.

International health emergency

The WHO officially classified the outbreak in Congo as an international health emergency in May, as it was detected far too late. Genetic analysis of the virus revealed that it is a rare strain, the so-called Bundibugyo variant, for which medications and vaccines are only now being developed.

WHO staff and medical aid organizations have mobilized all possible resources in recent weeks to locate and isolate the infected, test their contacts, and place them in quarantine. However, the fact that the virus continues to spread geographically suggests that not all contacts have been identified and the virus continues to spread unnoticed.

Dilapidated supply situation complicates containment

Compounding the problem is the dilapidated security and supply situation in the affected areas in eastern Congo.