{"id":3412,"date":"2026-05-26T05:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/?p=3412"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:04:35","slug":"tension-high-as-3-ebola-new-cases-are-confirmed-by-the-ministry-of-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/tension-high-as-3-ebola-new-cases-are-confirmed-by-the-ministry-of-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Tension High As 3 Ebola New Cases Are Confirmed By The Ministry of Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ministry of Health has confirmed three new cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), raising the total number of confirmed infections in the country to five as health authorities intensify surveillance and containment measures amid growing regional concern.<\/p>\n

According to Dr Charles Olaro, Uganda\u2019s Director General of Health Services, the newly confirmed cases include a Ugandan driver who transported the country\u2019s first Ebola patient and later died from complications linked to the disease, as well as a health worker who had participated in the patient\u2019s treatment and management.<\/p>\n

The third confirmed case involves a Congolese woman who reportedly entered Uganda through the Arua border before travelling to Entebbe. The Ministry of Health said the woman boarded a chartered flight from Arua to Entebbe and later sought treatment at a private hospital in Kampala. She was later discharged and travelled back to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before laboratory samples collected by Ugandan authorities returned positive for Ebola.<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest developments come as Ugandan authorities continue to dispute the World Health Organization\u2019s decision to group Uganda together with the DRC in the current outbreak response. Kampala argues that Uganda has only recorded a limited number of imported cases compared to the dozens of infections and deaths reported across the border in eastern DRC.<\/p>\n

Speaking during a press briefing on Thursday, Dr Diana Atwine, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, announced tighter restrictions on travel to the DRC, maintaining that Uganda had not recorded active positive cases at the time because the only imported patient under treatment had tested negative before the new confirmations emerged.<\/a><\/p>\n

The outbreak has also triggered international concern. Earlier this week, the United States updated its travel advisories for several countries in the region, placing Uganda, the DRC, and South Sudan under Level 4 \u201cDo Not Travel\u201d advisories, while Rwanda was placed under a Level 3 advisory urging travellers to reconsider travel plans due to the Ebola Bundibugyo Virus Disease outbreak.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department\u2019s Travel Advisories for DRC, South Sudan, and Uganda are now Level 4 \u2013 Do Not Travel, and the Travel Advisory for Rwanda is Level 3 \u2013 Reconsider Travel,\u201d a notice published on the U.S. Embassy website stated.<\/p>\n

Reports also indicate that an American citizen who had travelled to the DRC tested positive for Ebola and was later evacuated to Germany for specialised treatment.<\/p>\n

Health experts warn that the current outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain poses a significant public health threat because there are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments targeting the strain. Medical management largely relies on supportive care aimed at improving survival chances, while the disease\u2019s fatality rate is estimated at approximately 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

The Bundibugyo strain outbreak marks the second time both Uganda and the DRC have recorded cases linked to this particular Ebola variant. Both countries have previously battled multiple Ebola outbreaks associated with the more common Zaire strain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ministry of Health has confirmed three new cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), raising the total number of confirmed infections in the country to five as health authorities intensify surveillance and containment measures amid growing regional concern. According to Dr Charles Olaro, Uganda\u2019s Director General of Health Services, the newly confirmed cases include a Ugandan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stateupdate.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-05-21T173317Z_2128550983_RC2ODLAMQTTF_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-EBOLA-VACCINES-1320x906-1.jpg?fit=1320%2C906&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc68Dd-T2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3415,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3412\/revisions\/3415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}