Uganda declares first Ebola death since 2019: health ministry

Uganda's health ministry announced the country's first fatality from the highly contagious Ebola virus since 2019, declaring an outbreak in the central district of Mubende.

"The confirmed case is a 24 year old male... (WHO) presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed," the ministry said on Twitter, using an abbreviation for Ebola virus disease.

In a statement released earlier, the World Health Organisation said a 24-year-old man in Mubende had tested positive for "the relatively rare Sudan strain" of the virus.

"This follows an investigation by the National Rapid Response team of six suspicious deaths that have occurred in the district this month," WHO said.

Eight other suspected patients were undergoing treatment, WHO said.

"This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain," WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said.

"We are working closely with the national health authorities to investigate the source of this outbreak while supporting the efforts to quickly roll out effective control measures."

Ebola is an often fatal viral haemorrhagic fever.

First identified in 1976 in the DRC (then Zaire), the virus, whose natural host is the bat, has since set off a series of epidemics in Africa, killing around 15,000 people.

Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.