( CNN ) -- Ugandan health officials are declaring the country free of an Ebola outbreak blamed for 17 deaths since late July . The last patient with a confirmed infection was released on August 24 , the World Health Organization said in a statement . `` WHO does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Uganda with respect to this event , '' it said . The outbreak 's initial confirmation at a hospital in the western town of Kagadi sent patients fleeing and the facility scrambling to contact those who may have had the disease . In a separate incident , a convict brought to the hospital on suspicion of an infection escaped . Less than a third of the outbreak 's `` 24 probable and confirmed cases '' survived , according to the WHO . More than 350 people were isolated for testing on suspicion of having the disease . Ebola is caused by a highly infectious virus that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids . Symptoms include fever , vomiting , diarrhea , abdominal pain , headache , a measles-like rash , red eyes and , at times , bleeding from body openings . Initial symptoms of Ebola can be mistaken for other illnesses such as the flu . The Ebola virus was first detected in 1976 in the central African nation of Zaire ( now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ) , Uganda 's neighbor to the west . The virus is named after a river in that country , where the first outbreak of the disease was found . At least 10 people died in a separate Ebola outbreak in late August in the Democratic Republic of Congo .
17 people died in Uganda 's Ebola outbreak . The last patient was discharged on October 31 . The initial outbreak of the outbreak caused panic and sent people fleeing . At least two more died in a separate outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo .