Ebola: Uganda deploys medics, mobile labs to DRC to help contain outbreak
The deployment was confirmed by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Dianah Atwine, who said the team is accompanied by two high-tech mobile laboratories and logistical support to strengthen Ebola surveillance, testing and treatment in the DRC.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Dianah Atwine. (File photo)
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Uganda has deployed its first team of health workers to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to support efforts to contain the country's latest Ebola outbreak, in a cross-border intervention aimed at preventing imported infections and strengthening regional disease control.
The deployment was confirmed by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Dianah Atwine, who said the team is accompanied by two high-tech mobile laboratories and logistical support to strengthen Ebola surveillance, testing and treatment in the DRC.
"A bigger team of medics, two mobile laboratories, and logistics support is also en route to the DRC to join the Ebola fight. This joint Uganda-DRC initiative aims to strengthen the cross-border Ebola response by reducing the movement of Ebola patients into Uganda seeking care, curbing cross-border transmission, and ending the outbreak sooner," Atwine posted on her official X account.
"We have managed to contain the outbreak by treating all imported confirmed cases and those they had infected, tracing and quarantining contacts of confirmed cases, providing the required supportive treatment, and implementing measures sanctioned by President Yoweri Museveni. We have built systems to keep Ugandans safe; otherwise, the situation would have been very different by now," she said.
Although the government has withheld the identities of the health workers for security reasons, New Vision has established that the first deployment comprises about 80 medical personnel, with another contingent expected to leave later this month.
Under a bilateral arrangement between Uganda and the DRC, Uganda is expected to deploy a total of 160 health workers to four Ebola treatment and response centres across eastern DRC. Each centre will be staffed by about 40 Ugandan medics and supported by a dedicated mobile laboratory to provide rapid diagnosis and strengthen clinical management.
The deployment follows the recent launch of a joint 90-day Uganda-DRC cross-border Ebola response plan aimed at boosting laboratory capacity, clinical care and surveillance in areas most at risk of transmission.
Uganda's decision to deploy medical teams comes as the country's own Ebola situation continues to improve. The country has now gone a week without recording a new Ebola case and currently has only two patients still under treatment, both of whom are expected to be discharged this week, according to the Ministry of Health.
Since the outbreak began, Uganda has recorded 20 confirmed Ebola cases and two deaths. The Ministry of Health has attributed the decline in infections to aggressive surveillance, contact tracing, isolation and treatment measures.