The Ugandan Ministry of Health confirmed an Ebola outbreak on Friday, stating that a man had died after travelling to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

An outbreak of this virus was declared Friday morning in the DRC, in the Ituri province, located in the northeast of the country, on the border with Uganda and South Sudan. Some 246 suspected cases, including 65 deaths, have been reported so far.

The Ugandan Ministry of Health confirmed in a statement "an outbreak of disease caused by the Ebola Bundibugyo virus", adding that a 59-year-old man had died from the disease at the Kibuli Muslim Hospital in the capital, Kampala.

The man, a Congolese national, was hospitalized on Monday and died three days later. His body has been repatriated.

Ugandan authorities analyzed a sample taken from the deceased after the DRC reported an Ebola outbreak.

"This is an imported case from the DRC. The country has not yet confirmed any local cases," the ministry said, adding that it had deployed significant screening and surveillance protocols.

Despite recent vaccines and treatments, the Ebola virus remains frequently fatal, with case fatality rates ranging from 25% to 90%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This highly contagious hemorrhagic fever has claimed 15,000 lives in Africa over the past 50 years. The deadliest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which occurred between 2018 and 2020, resulted in nearly 2,300 deaths out of 3,500 cases.