WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Uganda over, cases keep rising in Congo
After 42 days without new infections, the UN agency certified the end of the Ugandan outbreak at a joint press conference with the Ministry of Health. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, confirmed cases stood at 5,656 as of August 25.
Two fronts of the same emergency are moving in opposite directions. The World Health Organization has declared Uganda free of Ebola after the mandatory 42-day monitoring period without new cases, announcing it at a joint press conference with Uganda’s Ministry of Health, as reported by Al Jazeera. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, by contrast, confirmed infections continue to rise.
The technical 42-day window
The WHO’s declaration comes about a month after Uganda had already announced on its own the end of the outbreak on national territory. The gap is not a contradiction: international certification requires a surveillance interval fixed at 42 days from the last case, and before that deadline the national announcement remains an assessment made by local authorities. According to the permanent secretary of Uganda’s Ministry of Health, Diana Atwine, “we knew we were free of Ebola” (transl. from English).
The Congolese figures
In the Democratic Republic of Congo the picture remains one of growth. According to government data cited by the ECDC, confirmed cases stood at 5,656 as of August 25, 2026, 72 more than the previous day, with 2,715 deaths. The province of Ituri, in the northeast of the country, remains the epicenter with over 4,700 infections.
| Indicator (DR Congo) | Value as of August 25, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Confirmed cases | 5,656 |
| Increase over previous day | +72 |
| Deaths | 2,715 |
| Infections in Ituri province alone | over 4,700 |
The Congolese outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a species for which, as indicated by the WHO’s dedicated page on the DRC emergency, there are no approved vaccines or specific treatments. This is the difference that explains why the two fronts are not behaving in the same way: the available tools are not the same for all species of the virus.
The international regulatory framework
The WHO declared the public health emergency of international concern on May 16, 2026 and, as reported in the Disease Outbreak News, advises against imposing travel and trade restrictions on affected countries. The recommendation belongs to the organization and is reported as such: this newspaper does not formulate its own guidance on health matters.
What remains unclear
The available sources do not indicate the date of the last case recorded in Uganda, nor the overall toll of the Ugandan outbreak in terms of infections and deaths. On the Congolese side, the figures cited by the ECDC come from the national government and are not accompanied, in the material available to the editorial staff, by an independent assessment on the ground; it is not stated how many of the 5,656 confirmed cases are still active.
The next verifiable checkpoint concerns the periodic review of the public health emergency of international concern declared on May 16, and the trend of the daily increase in Ituri: 72 cases in twenty-four hours is the most recent figure available.
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