Uganda

The project will cost €33.58 million (US$38.8 million), with the French loan covering approximately 95% of the investment and the Ugandan government providing the remaining €1.6 million (US$1.85 million).

The group’s network in Uganda now comprises six hospitals and 17 clinics, extending its capacity to provide specialist medical services in the country’s private healthcare market.

The trials will advance the evaluation of the two candidates against the Bundibugyo virus, a species distinct from the Zaire Ebola virus targeted by the widely used Ervebo vaccine.

The agreement establishes a framework for joint action against Bundibugyo virus disease, viral haemorrhagic fevers, cholera and other infectious disease threats that could spread across the border.

The mobile laboratory forms part of efforts to strengthen Uganda’s public health emergency preparedness following lessons from recent Ebola outbreaks.

Uganda completed the monitoring period without detecting further transmission, providing an additional safeguard that no transmission chains linked to the imported case had been missed.

Previously, patients requiring tests unavailable at the hospital had to wait while their samples were transported to facilities in Mbarara.

Throughout the 42-day period, health authorities maintained enhanced nationwide surveillance and found no evidence of further transmission.

The EBO-PEP platform trial, which has been under development since 2024, will evaluate several medicines as post-exposure prophylaxis for people who have had high-risk contact with filoviruses, the virus family that includes Bundibugyo Ebola.