Uganda has criticized air travel restrictions imposed by countries including the United States over an Ebola outbreak that began in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), calling the measures "unfair."

Public health officials have broadly praised Uganda's response to the deadly haemorrhagic fever's spillover. Since the alarm was raised in the DRC in mid-May, Uganda has confirmed 19 cases, almost all of them Congolese nationals who had crossed the border, with only two deaths. 

The DRC has confirmed more than 676 cases and 136 deaths since May 15.

"Today, the Ugandan Health Ministry, together with the Civil Aviation Authority, Ambassadors, and airline operators serving Uganda, discussed the unfair travel restrictions imposed on Uganda due to the current Ebola situation," Diana Atwine, permanent secretary for the health ministry, said on X on Friday.

"While we appreciate the need for vigilance, blanket restrictions undermine confidence in countries that report outbreaks openly, and are not commensurate with the actual risk."

Besides the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries to have imposed entry bans on travelers from Uganda, the DRC and neighboring South Sudan as a result of the outbreak.

While the World Health Organization's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Kampala's strategy on a visit to Uganda on Monday, the United Nations health agency warned on Friday that the outbreak was spreading to new areas in the neighboring DRC.

No vaccine nor specific treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for the latest outbreak, the 17th to hit the vast central African country.

Spread by close contact and infected bodily fluids, the disease has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.