Uganda confirms three new Ebola cases, bringing total to five

Key Takeaways

• The new cases in Uganda include a driver who transported the country’s first ⁠confirmed patient and a ​health worker.
• Uganda has confirmed three new ⁠cases of Ebola, bringing ⁠the total number of infections in the country in this outbreak to five, as authorities stepped up contact tracing to try to contain the spread.
• The update from Uganda’s Ministry of Health on Saturday came a day after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the risk assessment for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola was being revised to “very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level”.
• Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded in Uganda’s neighbouring country, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the centre of the outbreak.
• First responders in the DRC say they lack basic supplies, which some have attributed to foreign aid cuts by major international donors, particularly the United States.