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Article History

Received: 2 May 2025

Accepted: 10 November 2025

First Online: 29 December 2025

Declarations

:

: This study utilized archived, retrospective samples collected under routine national surveillance for viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) in Uganda. These samples were originally obtained from patients presenting with febrile illnesses at various hospitals across the country and submitted to the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) for diagnostic purposes. As the samples were collected for public health surveillance and not for research purposes, individual informed consent was not obtained. However, approval for additional testing of VHF-negative samples using the TaqMan Array Card (TAC) technique was granted by the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health, Uganda, for the purpose of public health investigation. The requirement for informed consent was waived by the UVRI Research Ethics Committee (UVRI-REC) and this waiver was in accordance with national regulations on the secondary use of anonymized surveillance data. The study was approved by the UVRI Research Ethics Committee under reference GC/127/934 and was also cleared by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) under reference HS2964ES. All procedures in this study were conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and complied with the national research ethics guidelines of Uganda.

: Not applicable.

: The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of CDC.

: The authors declare no competing interests.