Overview
- The government declared a new Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus on May 15, and authorities have since reported more than 1,000 suspected cases and about 246 deaths with cases concentrated in Ituri and detected in neighboring Uganda.
- WHO raised an international alert and its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited Kinshasa and Bunia to coordinate the response; the agency has recommended clinical trials and confirmed the first hospital patient recovered after two negative tests on May 27.
- Africa CDC pledged to drive development of a vaccine and a treatment for Bundibugyo by the end of 2026 and partners are preparing trials of candidate vaccines and therapies in the region.
- Response efforts are constrained by severe access problems caused by armed groups, shortages of protective equipment and testing kits, and limited local lab capacity even as a regional lab has been set up to shorten turnaround times.
- Humanitarian risk is acute because nearly 970,000 displaced people live across some 61 overcrowded sites in Ituri, raising the chance of explosive spread and prompting border restrictions, trade disruption and heightened regional health screening.