Ugandan Ebola teams safe, to open more DRC treatment centres — Atwine
Dr Diana Atwine said the Ugandan teams were operating safely and working closely with their Congolese counterparts in the ongoing response to the Ebola outbreak.
The Ministry of Health headquarters, permanent secretary Dr Diana Atwine, Uganda is now preparing to establish additional treatment capacity in DRC, with a third treatment centre planned in Ituri Province and another in Butembo, North Kivu. (File photo)
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Ugandan health workers deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help contain the Ebola outbreak are safe and continuing to treat and test patients, the Ministry of Health has said, as Uganda prepares to expand its medical mission with additional treatment centres.
Speaking to journalists on August 26, 2026, at the Ministry of Health headquarters, permanent secretary Dr Diana Atwine said the Ugandan teams were operating safely and working closely with their Congolese counterparts in the ongoing response to the Ebola outbreak.
“They are safe, they are very safe. They are treating patients, they are testing, they are engaging the population to change the mindset,” Atwine said.
She said the teams had initially encountered communities reluctant to seek care because of a belief that the disease was not Ebola or was not serious enough to warrant medical attention.
However, she said community attitudes were beginning to change as Ugandan health workers continued to provide treatment, testing and public health education.
Atwine said Uganda is now preparing to establish additional treatment capacity in DRC, with a third treatment centre planned in Ituri Province and another in Butembo, North Kivu.
This will bring to four the number of treatment centres Uganda is supporting in DRC, following a directive by President Yoweri Museveni for Uganda to establish four facilities to support the neighbouring country in containing the outbreak.
“We've been in Ituri, we set up two facilities there, but we are going to set up a third treatment centre, and also in North Kivu we are going to set up in Butembo,” Atwine said.
The expansion comes as Uganda's own Ebola outbreak has officially ended after the country completed the required 42-day period without a new confirmed case.
The World Health Organisation confirmed on Wednesday that Uganda's Ebola outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, was over after no new chains of transmission were identified.
Uganda had earlier declared itself Ebola-free on July 28 after completing the required period without a new case, but the final milestone has now been reached with the completion of the surveillance period.
The outbreak recorded 20 confirmed cases and two deaths in Uganda, according to reports on the conclusion of the outbreak.
Despite Uganda ending its outbreak, Atwine said the country would continue supporting DRC because controlling the virus there is important to preventing further cross-border transmission.
Uganda initially deployed about 80 health workers to DRC, with 40 personnel assigned to each of the first two treatment centres in Aru and Kasenyi.
Atwine said the Ugandan teams had been welcomed by communities and were working well with DRC health authorities. She said the growing number of patients seeking care from the Ugandan-supported facilities was an indication that confidence in the response was improving.
“It's amazing how now people are coming all the way from Bunia and coming to the border where our centre is,” she said.
Atwine said some patients arriving at the facilities had been referred by relatives who had previously received treatment from the Ugandan teams.
“The patients who got here yesterday, all of them were referred from Bunia by relatives that were treated earlier,” she said.
“Even Butembo, the government of North Kivu, the president that came here and asked us that please come and help us and work with our teams down there and set up,” Atwine said.
Uganda's deployment to DRC is part of a broader regional strategy to contain Ebola at its source while protecting Uganda from further importation of the virus. Atwine said the objective is to work with DRC authorities to interrupt transmission and ensure that communities affected by the outbreak have access to treatment and testing.
The deployment comes as the Ebola outbreak in DRC continues to grow rapidly, 100 days since the outbreak began, with the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response warning that the outbreak risks becoming the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history unless the international response is urgently scaled up.
On August 25, 2026, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported a total of 5,656 confirmed cases, including 2,715 related deaths. A total of 792 patients were hospitalised in isolation.
Among the individuals who tested positive for Bundibugyo virus, 1,245 have recovered. In total, 80.9% of identified case contacts were under follow-up in the affected provinces.
Ituri Province remains the most affected, with 4,716 cases, including 2,119 deaths, reported from 28 of 36 health zones.
The panel said the outbreak had become the fastest-growing and second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, with insecurity, shortages of basic health services, low community trust and attacks on health workers hampering efforts to contain the virus.
“One hundred days ago the world was warned of the Ebola Bundibugyo emergency. One hundred days later it is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded,” said the Right Honourable Helen Clark, Co-Chair of the Independent Panel.
The panel called for more treatment centres, testing capacity and trained personnel to reach communities affected by the outbreak.
“Ending this emergency requires a dramatic increase in the scale and speed of the response and follow-through to put the necessary resources and tools in the hands of those on the front lines,” Clark said.