Diana Atwine

Atwine framed the end of Uganda's outbreak as a case for lifting penalties. When WHO declared it over on 26 August, after a chain of 20 cases and two deaths, she backed the organisation's 42-day rule in public: "WHO had to wait because that's the process. That's the guideline."

In the same breath she argued that other countries "should definitely lift the restrictions off the country". Her government had already declared Uganda Ebola-free on 28 July, a month before WHO's clock ran out. For Kampala, travel and trade penalties began the day cases appeared but ended only when WHO's count finished. Her task now is to keep that argument alive while DR Congo, across a long border, still records hundreds of cases a week.

On 14 May 2026 Atwine announced Uganda's first Bundibugyo case: "This is an imported case from DRC. The country has not yet confirmed a local case." The patient, a 59-year-old Congolese man, had been admitted to Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala on 11 May and died on 14 May. His body was returned to DR Congo the same evening, which complicated contact mapping.

She put contacts under quarantine, sent a mobile laboratory to Bwera Hospital on the DR Congo border and started screening at western entry points. By 17 May at least 25 contacts were under monitoring. Her early line did not hold for long: confirmed cases rose from two to nine between 21 and 29 May, all in Kampala and neighbouring Wakiso.