The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday night that Uganda’s Ministry of Health reported a positive Ebola case at Mulago Hospital, the country’s only referral centre for the virus, and it was discovered in a four-year-old who died on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Uganda confirmed it had recorded 10 cases of a new strain of the virus. The first fatality from the latest outbreak was a male nurse who died before the outbreak was declared on January 30.

In February, the Health Ministry said all eight Ebola patients under care had been discharged, but at least 265 contacts remained under strict quarantine in Kampala.

The  latest outbreak is the sixth time Uganda has detected cases of Ebola. The cause of this new outbreak has been referred to as the Sudan Ebola strain, which does not have an approved vaccine yet.

The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people – the virus’s largest death toll.

The The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues. Its symptoms include fever, vomiting and muscle pain.

Ebola surveillance work in Africa has come under threat as NGOs that used to be funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have been forced to stop as President Donald Trump is essentially dismantling the US government’s aid agency.

Charles Olaro, the director of health services at Uganda’s Ministry of Health, told The Associated Press that the aid cuts affect some NGOs that help nations respond to infectious diseases.

“There  are challenges, but we need to adjust to the new reality,” Olaro said.

The victim, who died on Wednesday at a Kampala hospital, was a 32-year-old man, Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of the Health Ministry, told reporters on Thursday.

He sought treatment at various facilities, including at a public hospital in Mbale, 240km (150 miles) east of Kampala near the border with Kenya, she said.

“The patient experienced multi-organ failure and succumbed to the illness at Mulago National Referral Hospital on 29 January. Post-mortem samples confirmed the Sudan Ebola Virus Disease (strain),” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

It is Uganda’s first confirmed Ebola fatality since 2023.

At least 44 people, including 30 health workers, who came into contact with the nurse are being traced in an effort to contain the potential spread of the highly contagious virus, the ministry said.

It added that a vaccination drive for all contacts of the deceased will begin immediately.

Atwine said health authorities are “in full control of the situation”, urging Ugandans to report suspected cases.

An outbreak of Marburg, which is similar to Ebola, was declared in neighbouring Tanzania last week.

Rwanda, which also borders Uganda, has just emerged from a Marburg outbreak.

A contact-tracing drive may be challenging because Kampala is a crowded city of more than 4 million people. It is also a bottleneck for traffic into South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and other countries.

Ebola, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever, is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues. Symptoms include headache, vomiting, muscle pains and bleeding.

In recent years, Ugandan authorities have used laboratory testing, contact tracing and other techniques to bring Ebola outbreaks under control.

Uganda last suffered an outbreak in late 2022, which killed 55 of the 143 people infected. The deceased included six health workers.

The East African nation has experienced nine outbreaks of the viral disease since 2000.