KAMPALA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Uganda said on Friday that it is on high alert following an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has so far claimed 15 lives.

Henry Kyobe Bosa, incident commander at the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua by telephone that authorities are closely monitoring the situation and will conduct a risk assessment before developing measures to prevent possible importation of the virus.

Health officials in the DRC's capital of Kinshasa on Thursday declared an outbreak of the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus in Bulape health zone, where 28 suspected cases, including 15 deaths, have been reported. Four health workers were among the victims.

"The free movement between the two countries, back and forth, remains, which poses a challenge of importation," Kyobe said. "As soon as the risk assessment is done, we shall put in place interventions."

The World Health Organization has warned that infections could rise further in the new outbreak in the DRC's south-central province of Kasai, the country's 16th Ebola outbreak since 1976.

The DRC last declared the end of an Ebola outbreak in September 2022, after one case was confirmed in the eastern province of North Kivu. Genetic testing showed the case was linked to the massive 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri, which killed nearly 2,300 people.

Ebola is a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever that causes symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain, or malaise, and in many cases, internal and external bleeding. ■