WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Yakub Janabi has commended Uganda’s response to the Ebola outbreak and its commitment to containing the outbreak in a short period of time.
“Uganda should be judged by results, not timelines,” said Janabi, while defending Uganda’s decision to declare the end of its Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak before completing the conventional 42-day waiting period.
Janabi, who is in Uganda with a delegation from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) led by Director-General Jean Kaseya, on Thursday noted that while Uganda had declared its outbreak over, the wider regional response was ongoing.
Uganda discharged its last confirmed Ebola patient from the National Isolation and Treatment Centre in Mulago on July 16, 2026, and officially declared the outbreak over on July 28, less than two weeks later.
The move sparked debate, with some observers questioning why the country did not wait the standard 42 days after the last confirmed case.
“Uganda’s actions should be judged by the effectiveness of its response rather than strict adherence to procedural timelines,” Janabi said.
He said Uganda remains actively involved in efforts to contain the outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where authorities had confirmed 3,605 cases and 1,587 deaths by Monday.
Although Uganda and the DRC declared their outbreaks on the same day in May, Uganda registered only 20 confirmed cases. Fifteen of those were imported infections involving Congolese nationals who had crossed into Uganda seeking medical care.
Two weeks ago, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited Uganda as part of a regional mission to assess outbreak control efforts and support the response.
Following his visit, Tedros said Uganda had mounted a robust response, highlighting the country’s surveillance, testing and case management systems, which have enabled authorities to identify and manage cases rapidly.
MG/abj/APA