No further Ebola cases in Uganda after June deaths: DR Congo

Uganda says there have been no further cases of Ebola on its territory resulting from the deaths of two Ugandans who had travelled to DR Congo, the Congolese authorities said Wednesday.

In an update on the epidemic in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry said its Ugandan counterparts had confirmed there had been no further infections.

"The health ministry of the Republic of Uganda has announced that all contacts with the index case completed their obligatory 21-day monitoring period without developing signs of the disease," it said.

The "index case" was a five-year-old Ugandan boy who was the first of the two to die, followed by his grandmother.

His family had travelled to DRC where they had buried an Ebola-stricken relative.

They were then placed in an isolation ward in the DRC but fled and returned to Uganda across the porous border, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A total of 1,641 deaths have been recorded in DRC's North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri provinces since August 1, according to the latest toll.

The epidemic is the worst outbreak of Ebola on record after more than 11,300 were killed Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone between 2014-2016.