🔊 Ebola Alert: Arua City traces contacts after infected patient crossed from Congo
The Ministry of Health is advising the public to: Wash hands regularly with soap or sanitiser, avoid handshakes and hugging, and report anyone with fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, unexplained bleeding, or severe weakness immediately.
Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids of infected people. Early reporting and isolation are critical to stopping an outbreak.
ARUA - Health officials in Arua City are on high alert after a confirmed Ebola case crossed into Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo through the Arua border.
The patient, a Congolese national, was briefly treated at a local health facility in Arua City before being referred to Kampala, said Christopher Dradiku, head of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre at Arua Regional Referral Hospital.
Dradiku confirmed the details to Arua One FM today, May 19, 2026.
How the case unfolded, Col. Dr. Henry Kyobe Bosa, National Incident Commander for Public Health Emergencies at the Ministry of Health, told New Vision on May 17 that two confirmed Ebola cases involve Congolese nationals who entered Uganda seeking specialised medical care.
Emergency teams in Arua are now tracing the patient’s route.
To map potential contacts, investigators are working to identify which border point she used, how she travelled to Kampala, and who accompanied her.
Risk of cross-border spread
Arua City and West Nile share a busy border with Ituri Province in DRC. “We have a high risk of people crossing borders, including Congolese and South Sudanese seeking health and other services,” Dradiku said.
“That poses a risk to the population here.” For now, there are no travel restrictions. But Dradiku warned that restrictions could be imposed if the situation worsens.
What’s being done
A screening centre is being set up at Arua Regional Referral Hospital. Health teams are urging residents to stay calm but vigilant.
The Ministry of Health is advising the public to: Wash hands regularly with soap or sanitiser, avoid handshakes and hugging, and report anyone with fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, unexplained bleeding, or severe weakness immediately.
Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids of infected people. Early reporting and isolation are critical to stopping an outbreak.
Arua sits on one of Uganda’s busiest informal border crossings. With ongoing Ebola transmission in eastern DRC, health officials say vigilance at the border is the first line of defence.