It is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites and results in a brief benign generalised infection with headache, skin rash, diarrhea and joint pain and lasts 4–5 days.

Bwamba orthobunyavirus has a negative sense single stranded RNA (ssRNA) genome, and so is classified as a class V virus under the Baltimore classification system.

[2] Bwamba fever is endemic in several African countries, including Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, where the virus was initially discovered.

[2] The animal reservoir includes birds, monkeys and donkeys, which have been found to possess antibodies to Bwamba virus.

Some patients may also develop a body rash",[2] as reported by the Uganda Virus Research Institute, who also discovered the disease in the 1940s.