For the VHF field laboratory to be fully supportive to the control efforts there must be an appropriate strategyfor sampling, testing and communicating results. Isolation must not be delayed until the diagnosis has been laboratory confirmed for any length of time, as this would put contacts of probable cases at risk of transmission. Instead, probable cases must be isolated on clinical and epidemiological grounds alone, possibly in a holding area outside the isolation ward if that is more acceptable to patients. Given that the isolation ward is a very frightening place for most, probable cases who know that laboratory results will be available in a few days, notably HCWs who are probable cases themselves, may refuse isolation without laboratory confirmation. HCWs who decide on isolation may be less inclined to insist if the probable case is one of their colleagues. This occurred repeatedly during the Masindi outbreak, and at least one case of occupational Ebola infection occurred at Kiryandongo Hospital due to the delayed transfer of a probable case to the Ebola ward.