CDC in Uganda: Three Decades of Public Health Partnership

CDC began working in Uganda in 1991 and opened a country office there in 2000. With Uganda's Ministry of Health and other partners, it works to build lasting public health systems, reduce the burden of HIV and malaria, widen access to vaccines, and respond quickly to outbreaks and other emergencies. CDC describes the work as protecting both health in Uganda and the health of Americans.

Selected results

According to CDC, its support in Uganda has:

• helped more than 85 laboratories gain international accreditation, up from 7 in 2015;
• trained 878 fellows through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) and 5 Lab Leadership Fellows;
• responded to more than 651 outbreak events, including monkeypox, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, Rift Valley fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever, COVID-19, influenza, measles, cholera, typhoid, meningitis and anthrax;
• helped the ministry reach more than 9,000 children with catch-up vaccinations in targeted districts, linking 90% of identified "zero-dose" children to immunization services; and
• in 2024, provided HIV treatment to nearly 800,000 people (97% of them with suppressed virus) and supported HIV testing for more than 860,000 pregnant women, linking 99% of those diagnosed to treatment to prevent transmission to their babies.

Uganda's third Population-based HIV Impact Assessment, launched in 2025, was carried out entirely by Ugandan institutions and for the first time includes data on some noncommunicable diseases.

Laboratories

Since 2003 CDC has helped the ministry build a national laboratory network. A sample transport and referral network set up in 2011 now moves more than 4 million samples a year for HIV and TB testing, disease monitoring and outbreak response. Centralized testing, launched in 2014, has grown from 8 hubs to 100 hubs plus six standby mobile units. The CDC-supported National Equipment Calibration Laboratory has certified more than 1,000 biosafety cabinets and calibrates instruments across the network.

Training disease detectives

In 2015 CDC, the ministry and Makerere University School of Public Health set up Uganda's FETP, which trains public health workers at national (advanced), regional (intermediate) and district (frontline) levels. It is the only FETP in Africa that enrolls fellows who already hold a master's degree. A Laboratory Leadership Program, launched with the Uganda National Institute of Public Health, builds management skills in laboratories. FETP trainees and graduates have been central to recent Ebola and monkeypox responses.

Emergency response

With CDC's support, the ministry established Uganda's Public Health Emergency Operations Center in 2013. It has managed more than 70 major public health emergencies over the past decade. CDC also helped set up six of the country's 13 regional emergency operations centers and continues to support all of them. Since 2018 CDC has supported disease surveillance in 45 border districts and at 66 points of entry, helping detect and contain Ebola outbreaks in 2019, 2022 and 2025 — each contained within 90 days with no spread across borders — as well as cholera in 2024 and monkeypox in 2025. A national digital health data warehouse, built with CDC's help, brings together data across programs for real-time analysis.

The 2025 Ebola outbreak

Uganda confirmed its eighth Ebola outbreak, caused by Sudan virus, on January 30, 2025. The ministry projected it could last more than 200 days; it ended in 87. There were 14 cases and 4 deaths, and all ten patients who received treatment survived, Uganda's highest survival rate yet.

• The emergency operations center activated immediately.
• FETP fellows identified and monitored 600 high-risk contacts.
• Laboratories processed more than 2,500 samples, returning results within 12 hours of symptom onset.
• CDC trained infection prevention leads at more than 1,000 health facilities, and real-time dashboards guided decisions as the outbreak reached new districts.
• Staff at Entebbe International Airport screened more than 500,000 travelers in eight weeks.

In Uganda's 2000 Ebola outbreak, 224 people died. In 2025, although the outbreak struck a densely populated urban area with higher transmission risk, 4 did.

HIV and TB

As a key implementer of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC supports Uganda's ability to prevent, detect and respond to HIV, TB and other infectious diseases. Uganda is one of five countries in the TB Guidance for Adaptable Patient-Centered Service (TB GAPS) study, which is looking for better ways to screen for, diagnose and prevent TB in children and adults.

Malaria

Malaria causes 37% of hospital admissions in Uganda. CDC has supported better diagnosis and treatment, prevention during pregnancy, and community awareness. Since 2006, joint efforts to distribute 107,000 mosquito nets, spray 750,000 homes (protecting 2.7 million people) and provide 1.4 million rapid tests have helped cut child mortality by 53% and lower malaria prevalence among children under five from 42% to 9%, according to the 2019 Uganda Malaria Indicator Survey.

Immunization

Working through the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunization, CDC supports routine vaccination, new vaccine introductions, outbreak response for diseases such as polio, measles and Ebola, and training, data use and outreach to reach children who missed vaccines. It supported the rollout of the R21 malaria vaccine and helped introduce the MVA-BN monkeypox vaccine, with close to 200,000 high-risk people vaccinated.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "CDC in Uganda": https://www.cdc.gov/global-health/countries/uganda.html
• The source page's photographs and flag graphic are not reproduced.