On 23 April 2022 health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola after a case was confirmed, setting the precedence for other cases both in the country and neighboring states.

So far, more than 20 cases have been confirmed, while new reports confirm that a likely outbreak is brewing in Uganda.  

Ugandan health authorities have confirmed 75 cases of Ebola since September 20, including 28 deaths. There are 19 active cases.

The official numbers don’t include those who might have died of Ebola before the outbreak was confirmed in a farming community about 93 miles west of Kampala.

Fears that Ebola could spread far from the outbreak’s epicenter have compelled authorities to impose an ongoing lockdown, including nighttime curfews, on two of the five districts reporting Ebola cases. The measures were put in place after a man infected with Ebola sought treatment in Kampala and died in a hospital there.

Over 1,100 contacts of known Ebola patients have now been documented, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization would begin trials for two vaccines to hopefully combat the Sudan strain of the virus which is primarily behind the Ebola spread in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ebola, which manifests as viral hemorrhagic fever, is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and at times, internal and external bleeding.

Ebola first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it occurred in a village near the Ebola River after which the disease is named.