Ebola

On 20 September 2022, Uganda declared an Ebola disease outbreak caused by the Sudan ebolavirus species, after the confirmation of a case in Mubende district in the central part of the country.

It was the country’s first Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in a decade, and its fifth of this kind of Ebola. In total during this outbreak, there were 164 cases (142 confirmed and 22 probable), 55 confirmed deaths and 87 recovered patients.

WHO and partners supported Ugandan health authorities from the outset of the outbreak, deploying experts, providing training in contact tracing, testing and patient care, as well as building isolation and treatment centres and providing laboratory testing kits.

On 11 January 2023, Uganda declared the end of the outbreak. Because this outbreak was caused by the Sudan ebolavirus, one of six species of the Ebola virus against which there are no approved therapeutics and vaccines, WHO worked with partners—including vaccines developers, researchers, donors and the Ugandan health authorities—to identify candidate therapeutics and vaccines that could be included in trials. Three candidate vaccines were identified and over 5000 doses of these were sent to the country. The speed of this collaboration marked a milestone in the global capacity to respond to rapidly evolving outbreaks and prevent them from becoming larger.  

WHO will continue to work with Uganda’s health authorities and partners to maintain surveillance, support survivors, and advance vaccine and therapeutics research.