After one month, the Ebola outbreak in Uganda is ‘rapidly evolving,’ according to the WHO.

KAMPALA, Uganda – A month just after disease was first reported in Uganda, a top World Health Organization representative said Thursday that the epidemic is “rapidly evolving,” characterizing a challenging situation for healthcare personnel on the ground.

“The Ministry of Health of Uganda has demonstrated outstanding resilience as well as performance, and is continuously improving a response to an immensely challenging situation,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the United Nations’ regional director for Africa.

“An improved comprehension of the propagation chains is assisting those on the ground in responding more efficaciously.”

On Sept. 20, Uganda confirmed an Ebola outbreak, a few days after the deadly disease started spreading in a rural farming village.

Since then, Ebola has infected 64 individuals and killed 24, though actual numbers do not include people who died from the disease before the epidemic was confirmed.

According to Moeti, at least three of the declared patients made the journey from the disease hot spot in central Uganda to Kampala, which is approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) away.

Concerns that Ebola would spread far from the outbreak’s epicenter prompted officials to place two of the five districts disclosing Ebola cases under lockdown, along with nighttime curfews.

Dr. Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), said in a different press conference Thursday that the “numbers we are seeing do pose a danger for spread within the nation and its neighbors.”

While the risk of cross-border contamination exists, “it’s a controllable risk,” according to Ogwell, who added that the epidemic does not yet necessarily require going into “full emergency mode.”

According to Ogwell, Ugandan officials have documented over 1,800 Ebola contacts, of whom 747 have completed 21 days of review for possible signs of the disease, which emerges as a viral hemorrhagic fever.

Scientists do not know what the natural host of Ebola is, but they believe the first people diagnosed in an outbreak contracted the disease through contact with an animal or by consuming raw meat from an infected animal.

Ugandan authorities are still investigating the origin of the current outbreak. Uganda has experienced several Ebola incidences, such as one in 2000 that killed over 200 people.

The 2014-16 Ebola West African outbreak killed over 11,000 people, making it the virus’s deadliest outbreak.

Ebola was discovered in two concurrent outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo in 1976, in a nearby village to the Ebola River, to which the disease was named.