A conversation with Uganda’s outbreak commander as the African nation deals with the ramifications of the 2025 Sudan Ebola outbreak.
🦠 Sneak Peek: Containing Ebola in a Shifting World
A Frontline Conversation with Uganda’s National Outbreak Commander
“Many people associate Ebola with terrifying headlines from past outbreaks. For someone reading this from New York or Los Angeles, why should they care about an Ebola outbreak happening thousands of miles away in Uganda?”
That’s the question we posed to Dr. Henry Kyobe Bosa — Uganda’s National Incident Commander for Epidemics — in a wide-ranging interview on the 2025 Sudan Ebola outbreak and its global implications.
In this compelling conversation, Dr. Kyobe gives a rare inside look at Uganda’s latest battle with Ebola — one that began in the bustling capital of Kampala and quickly spread across multiple districts amid an ongoing mpox outbreak and shifting global health aid.
He shares not only the challenges of early detection and containment, but also how lessons from past outbreaks and stockpiling of tools like remdesivir helped avert a crisis.
Why does it matter?
Because any suboptimal response to Ebola anywhere is a threat to global health security everywhere — from rural districts in Uganda to urban centers in the U.S.
👨🏽⚕️ Meet Dr. Henry Kyobe Bosa
Dr. Henry Kyobe Bosa is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health and a Colonel in the Uganda People’s Defense Forces. A trained physician, emerging infectious disease epidemiologist, and researcher, Dr. Kyobe has served as Uganda’s National Incident Commander for Epidemics since 2020 — overseeing all major public health emergencies in the country.
He was appointed to this civilian role directly by the President of Uganda and represents Uganda on the African Ebola Coordination Taskforce (AfECT), a joint African Union/WHO mechanism.
A scientist and author, Dr. Kyobe recently co-authored a pivotal Nature Medicine article marking the 10-year anniversary of the West African Ebola epidemic, outlining key strategies for mitigating future outbreaks. He is an alumnus of Makerere University, the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, the University of Ancona, and the University of Washington.
Dr. Kyobe is also a father, husband, Christian, and dedicated Rotarian — a public servant in every sense of the word.
Want to know what tools Uganda is using that could change the future of outbreak response? Why Kampala’s outbreak posed a new kind of threat? And what U.S. hospitals should be doing now to prepare?
👉 Read the full interview here
This transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion. Image courtesy of Dr. Frederick Murphy via CDC.