Boy dies of Ebola in Uganda as virus spreads from DRCongo

A five-year-old boy who tested positive for Ebola in Uganda has died, a health ministry official said Wednesday as two of his family members also tested positive for the virus after a visit to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The World Health Organisation confirmed on Twitter that Uganda has now recorded three cases of Ebola, in the first spread across the country's porous western border with the DRC where more than 2,000 cases of the highly contagious virus have been registered.

Uganda's health ministry said on Tuesday that a woman of Congolese origin, who is married to a Ugandan, had gone with her child and four other family members to take care of her father in the DRC, who later died of Ebola.

"The boy who tested positive for Ebola in Kasese yesterday passed on last night in the isolation unit," a health ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The minister for health (Ruth Aceng) will be briefing the country about the death of the boy and arrangements to bury the body."