CDC mobilizes as Ebola outbreak spreads in Congo and Uganda
CDC moved to help withdraw exposed Americans as Congo’s Ebola outbreak crossed into Uganda and officials logged 80 suspected deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mobilized response activities after Ebola spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, while helping partners coordinate the safe withdrawal of a small number of Americans directly affected by the outbreak. The agency said the immediate risk to the American public remained low, but it moved to reinforce the response as health officials faced an outbreak that had already crossed borders and reached an alarming level of suspected deaths.
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on May 17, 2026, after reporting 8 laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in Ituri Province as of May 16. The cases were spread across at least three health zones, Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu, a sign that the virus was moving through a difficult and volatile part of eastern Congo. The WHO also said two laboratory-confirmed cases were identified in Kampala, Uganda, on May 15 and May 16 in travelers from the DRC, underscoring how quickly the threat had moved across a border officials were already watching closely.
CDC said its country offices in Congo and Uganda were coordinating surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, infection prevention and control, and other containment efforts with the ministries of health and other partners. The agency also said the terrain in Ituri Province made response work harder, citing limited transportation infrastructure, difficult terrain and ongoing security concerns that can slow access for medical teams and investigators. Those constraints have long complicated Ebola containment in eastern Congo, where every delay can widen the window for transmission.
Officials were also trying to manage the risk to Americans who had been in the outbreak zone. CDC said it was supporting interagency partners in the safe withdrawal of a small number of U.S. citizens directly affected by the outbreak. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, not casual contact or air, which is why CDC said the public risk in the United States remained low even as the situation abroad intensified.
The outbreak carried a heavy historical warning. CDC said it had responded to the Ebola outbreak in Congo that ended in December 2025, the country’s 18th since 1976. It is also Congo’s second outbreak of Bundibugyo virus, a strain the WHO said has had only two documented outbreaks before and no licensed vaccines or therapeutics. The same part of eastern Congo was also the site of the 2018-2020 outbreak, the second-largest in history, which killed 2,287 people out of 3,470 cases. That history has shaped the current playbook: rapid surveillance, tighter infection control, and a cautious effort to move exposed people without creating a wider public health emergency.
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