Uganda is set to discharge its last Ebola patient on Thursday, marking the start of a 42-day countdown before the country can be declared free of the virus, a government spokesperson said.

Under World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, a country can be declared Ebola-free if no new cases are reported for 42 consecutive days after the last patient tests negative and is discharged.

Uganda's Health Ministry said 17 patients had recovered, with one remaining in isolation and two deaths recorded. It said five cases were locally acquired and 15 were imported.

Government spokesperson Alan Kasujja said the final patient would be discharged from Mulago National Referral Hospital in the capital, Kampala, on Thursday.

Count down

"When that happens, Uganda starts counting down," Kasujja wrote on X. "If 42 days pass without a single new case, WHO guidelines stipulate that we will be declared Ebola free."

The wider outbreak, which the WHO declared a public health emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in May, has resulted in 2,011 confirmed infections and 754 confirmed deaths as of Wednesday, according to Congolese government data.

All confirmed cases have been linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which the WHO has described as the third-largest outbreak of its kind on record.