Samaritan's Purse sends Greensboro cargo plane with Ebola supplies to Congo

A Samaritan's Purse 767 cargo plane lifted off from Greensboro with an Ebola Treatment Center and personal protective equipment for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, making Piedmont Triad International Airport the departure point for a response that began in Guilford County and headed into one of Africa’s most dangerous outbreaks.

The shipment went out after the World Health Organization confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Ituri Province on May 15, 2026. WHO identified it as Bundibugyo virus disease, a species of Ebola for which there is no licensed vaccine or specific therapeutics, though early supportive care can be lifesaving. The outbreak had already spread to Uganda, and WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of May 16 there were 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths in the DRC, while other estimates put the suspected case count and death toll higher.

Samaritan's Purse said the Greensboro airlift was part of more than a decade of Ebola response work. During the 2014 outbreak in Liberia, the organization said it operated an Ebola treatment center and provided awareness and prevention education to more than 1.6 million people. It also established an Ebola Treatment Center in the DRC in 2018 and cared for more than 600 patients there.

The organization said additional disaster response specialists had already been deployed, with more team members on the way. Franklin Graham said the group was responding because people in the DRC were in desperate need of emergency medical relief and supplies. For Guilford County, the flight put the Triad’s airport on the front edge of a global emergency, with local aviation and logistics carrying aid far beyond North Carolina and into a fast-moving health crisis overseas.