Uganda has discharged all 60 people it traced as possible contacts of Kenya's first Ebola patient, after none of them developed symptoms during 21 days of monitoring, the country's Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said on Sunday, October 25.

The contacts were identified after Ugandan authorities learned that the Kenyan man, who was later confirmed to have Ebola, had passed through Uganda on his way from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Nairobi. Health teams reconstructed his movements and traced staff at points of entry and exit, hotel workers and transport operators who had interacted with him.

Baryomunsi said "all 60 contacts which we listed, identified and monitored in Uganda" had completed their follow-up, according to Kenyans.co.ke.

The Kenyan traveller flew from Entebbe International Airport to Nairobi on October 3 and died two days later. His case triggered Kenya's outbreak, which has since grown to nine confirmed cases and two deaths, all within a single cluster of contacts, according to Kenya's Ministry of Health.

Paid quarantine for returnees

At the same briefing, Baryomunsi announced that Ugandan citizens returning from the DRC will be placed in a 21-day quarantine, and that they will pay for it themselves, Al Jazeera reported. Screening has also been stepped up at Entebbe and at land border crossings, with all incoming travellers required to fill in forms with their contact details.

He also warned of consequences for Congolese nationals who enter Uganda through unofficial routes, saying those found to have the disease could be required to meet their own treatment costs.

Uganda maintains that it is Ebola-free. It declared its own outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain over on July 28 after recording 20 infections and two deaths, Al Jazeera reported. Baryomunsi pledged to work with Kenya and the DRC to suppress the virus.

Row over Nigeria case

The minister also pushed back against suggestions that Nigeria's first Ebola case in more than a decade, confirmed in Abuja on October 20, was contracted in Uganda. Swiss authorities have said the patient, a Ugandan-born woman married to a Swiss diplomat, caught the virus during a visit to Uganda in September.

Baryomunsi questioned whether investigators had ruled out exposure through relatives who had visited the DRC and met her in a Kampala suburb.

"We should speak science, not politics," he said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Nigerian authorities have said genetic testing found closely related viruses in the Nigerian and Kenyan cases, though no direct link has been established. Both patients passed through Entebbe on the same day, but Ugandan officials said security footage showed no physical interaction between them. Investigations by Nigerian and Ugandan officials are continuing.

Regional picture

The DRC is battling its largest recorded Ebola outbreak. By October 20, the WHO had recorded 9,704 cases and 4,687 deaths across eight Congolese provinces. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or specific treatment.

The WHO has urged stronger monitoring and cross-border cooperation, while advising against travel or trade restrictions on affected countries. For Kenya, the clearing of the Ugandan contacts removes one possible source of hidden spread as the Ministry of Health counts down towards the 42 days without new cases needed to declare the country Ebola-free.

Photos: Reuters via Al Jazeera (Uganda Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi); Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (Ugandan Ebola response team)