Uganda has reportedly quietly offered to host American citizens exposed to Ebola as the United States races to secure a regional treatment and quarantine hub amid the worsening outbreak in Central Africa.
“They approached us…they are still assessing where they can establish,” Dr Diana Atwine the Health Ministry Permanent Secretary told the BBC.
She added, “We are not just working alone, we are working with partners. I do not think there is a problem working with them when they have a challenge especially where their nationals are exposed in Africa.”
The development comes just as the White House confirmed plans to establish a specialized Ebola treatment facility in East Africa to receive Americans exposed to the virus in the outbreak zone centred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
While Washington has publicly identified Kenya as its preferred location for the facility, sources indicate that Uganda has also stepped forward behind the scenes, offering to host American Ebola patients requiring quarantine or treatment.
The reported Ugandan offer comes as the region remains on high alert following the spread of the deadly Bundibugyo strain of Ebola across eastern Congo and into Uganda, where authorities have already confirmed infections and heightened surveillance measures.
U.S. officials say the proposed regional centre would allow Americans working in or around the outbreak zone to receive urgent care without being flown more than 12 hours back to the United States.
“Time is of the essence for Ebola patients,” a U.S. administration official said this week, describing the planned facility as a “state-of-the-art” emergency response centre intended to deliver rapid treatment and critical care.
Uganda’s reported willingness to host such patients signals Kampala’s growing confidence in its outbreak response capacity and its long-standing experience handling Ebola emergencies.
Uganda has previously been praised internationally for rapidly detecting and containing Ebola outbreaks, with health authorities, emergency surveillance teams and treatment units already activated following the latest regional scare. The Ministry of Health has also intensified border screening and cross-border coordination as the epidemic escalates in neighbouring Congo.
The White House has meanwhile tightened entry restrictions into the United States linked to the outbreak, with enhanced airport screening and temporary travel measures affecting travellers from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan.
If confirmed publicly by both governments, Uganda’s offer would place Kampala at the centre of an increasingly sensitive international Ebola response—one involving diplomacy, emergency health coordination and Washington’s efforts to keep potentially infected Americans close to the outbreak zone while avoiding lengthy evacuation flights back home.
For now, Kenya remains the publicly announced front-runner for the U.S.-backed facility, but Uganda’s reported intervention adds a new political and diplomatic twist to the fast-moving regional Ebola response.
