An international effort is underway to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda that has infected hundreds of people and caused dozens of suspected deaths, with the United States triggering a public health law to limit entry from the affected region.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a “public health emergency of international concern.” The latest outbreak does not yet meet the criteria of a “pandemic emergency,” but WHO warned the high positivity rate and increasing number of cases and deaths across health zones point toward “a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported.”
More than 100 suspected deaths have been linked to the outbreak in the DRC, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, told CNN on Monday.
That same day the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention invoked Title 42 – a public health law that restricts entry into the US during outbreaks of communicable diseases – for at least 30 days starting Monday.
The agency assessed the immediate risk to the US public as “low,” but added that officials would track the “evolving situation,” in a statement on Monday.
There have been 10 confirmed cases and 336 suspected cases in the DRC, the US CDC reported Sunday. WHO said the outbreak is affecting the country’s remote northeastern Ituri province. In neighboring Uganda, two laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death, have so far been reported in the country’s capital Kampala, WHO reported.
A man is carried from an ambulance as he arrives at Bunia General Referral Hospital following confirmation of an Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain in Bunia, Ituri province, on May 16, 2026. Victoire Mukenge/Reuters
The latest outbreak is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain, one of several viruses that can cause Ebola disease, WHO said. The organizaton has called the outbreak “extraordinary” as there are currently no approved treatments or vaccines specific to the Bundibugyo virus.
Ebola symptoms include fever, muscle pain, rash and sometimes bleeding. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, including the handling of contaminated materials or someone who has died from the disease.
The fatality rate involving the Bundibugyo strain is estimated to be between 25% and 40%, according to Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
