Maha Christopher
The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached 894 confirmed cases and 204 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Speaking during a webinar on Thursday, Acting Head of Africa CDC’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Division, Dr. Wessam Mankoula, said 74 recoveries have been recorded since the outbreak was declared on May 15, 2026.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mankoula said Uganda’s situation has remained relatively stable, with 19 confirmed cases, two deaths and seven recoveries, all confined to a single health zone in Kampala.
He noted that the DRC remains the epicentre of the outbreak, particularly Ituri Province, which has recorded 91 confirmed cases and accounts for 78 per cent of all Ebola-related deaths in the country.
“North Kivu is the most worrisome area due to insecurity limiting responder access, resulting in a high case fatality rate and the lowest contact tracing coverage among the three affected provinces,” Mankoula said.
He revealed that the outbreak has spread rapidly, expanding from three health zones in the first week to 32 affected health zones across Uganda and the DRC within four weeks.
“This ranks as the third-largest Ebola outbreak by total cases and deaths so far, behind only West Africa 2014 and the 2018–2019 DRC outbreak,” he said.
Mankoula expressed concern over poor contact tracing efforts, stating that while more than 800 confirmed cases should translate into between 17,000 and 35,000 contacts being monitored, only about 6,000 have been listed.
“Of those 6,000 listed contacts, only around 4,000 are actively followed — less than 15 per cent of the contacts that should be monitored to detect new cases early,” he said.
He warned that controlling the outbreak remains difficult because there are currently no licensed vaccines or therapeutics for the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus.
“Without licensed vaccines or therapeutics for the Sudan strain, controlling the outbreak depends entirely on case identification, contact listing and daily monitoring by community health workers,” he added.
The Africa CDC official also highlighted major gaps in safe burial operations, saying only seven of the 49 required burial teams and seven of the 98 required vehicles are currently available.
Mankoula said Africa CDC and the World Health Organisation have launched a unified six-month response plan valued at 517 million dollars, covering affected countries, neighbouring states and partner coordination efforts.
He added that testing capacity has improved significantly, with delays reduced from up to eight days to less than 24 hours, while more than 21,000 tests have already been distributed across affected countries.
Despite these efforts, he warned that funding shortages, insecurity and weak contact tracing remain key challenges in bringing the outbreak under control.
“Funding remains a gap. Although 910 million dollars has been pledged, less than 90 million dollars has so far been released to affected countries and partners,” Mankoula said.
