JONATHAN M. METSCH, Dr.P.H. – Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – May 15, 2026 – Ebola
There have been 246 suspected cases of the haemorrhagic fever reported so far in the conflict-hit Ituri province, which shares borders with Uganda and South Sudan.
“Officials at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said they were concerned about the risk of further spread. Ituri province is home to mining towns where people are constantly coming and going, making infectious disease control challenging.
Ebola is a severe illness with a high fatality rate. It is spread through direct contact with body fluids such as the blood or vomit of infected people, or dead bodies, such as during funeral preparations.
Africa CDC said the DRC’s national research laboratory had detected the Ebola virus in 13 of 20 samples tested.
The DRC has had 16 outbreaks of Ebola since the virus was identified there in 1976. Typically it has been the Zaire strain of Ebola, for which vaccines are available. However, DRC health officials said the samples tested were of the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no licensed vaccine. There have been two previous outbreaks of Bundibugyo virus, in 2007 and 2012.” (1)
““It’s pretty stunning to have first notice of an outbreak in D.R.C., which is very experienced, and have it be so large,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Outbreaks are typically picked up much earlier by the World Health Organization, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or by news reports, she said.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director general of the W.H.O., said in a briefing on Friday that the organization was first notified about suspected Ebola cases on May 5 and sent a team to Ituri to investigate. The samples they collected initially tested negative for the virus, he said.
Samples were later sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, which confirmed on Thursday that some of them had tested positive for Ebola, Dr. Tedros said.
Preliminary analyses by the institute in Kinshasa indicate that the virus does not belong to the Zaire species, the only Ebola type for which a licensed vaccine exists. Two other species of Ebola, Sudan and Bundibugyo, had previously been detected in Congo. Dr. Tedros said in a text message that the Ituri samples initially tested negative because the field testing equipment could only detect the Zaire species.” (2)
“Uganda on Friday reported one Ebola case involving a Congolese man admitted to a hospital in Kampala three days before he died. Officials said the case was “imported” from Congo, and that Uganda has not yet confirmed any local cases.
In a statement, Uganda’s Health Ministry said samples taken from the patient were tested posthumously on Friday after neighboring Congo confirmed an Ebola outbreak, and that the tests confirmed that the patient had Ebola. All contacts linked to the man have been quarantined, including a high-risk contact who is a close relative of the deceased, the agency said. The deceased’s body has been taken back to Congo.
The World Health Organization said last year that Congo has a stockpile of treatments and some 2,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine. However, the vaccine is effective against the Ebola Zaire strain, it said.” (3)
“2013-2016: The worst outbreak on record
An outbreak a decade ago across several countries in West Africa is the worst on record.
There were more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths as the highly contagious disease spread widely in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and spilled over into nearby nations. A small number of cases were also reported in the United States, the U.K., Italy and Spain linked to travelers from Africa or health workers returning from Africa after helping with the outbreak.
The epidemic was believed to have started in southeastern Guinea when a child — “patient zero” — came into contact with infected fruit bats, according to researchers.
2018-2020: Congo and Uganda
The second-biggest outbreak in history occurred soon after in Congo’s North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, with some cases in neighboring Uganda. The latest outbreak announced Friday is also in Ituri, on the border with Uganda.
The outbreak eight years ago had more than 3,400 reported cases and more than 2,200 deaths with a fatality rate of 66%, according to the CDC.
Like the 2013-2016 outbreak, the one in Congo was caused by the Ebola virus.
Congo has had more than a dozen significant previous outbreaks, including one as recent as late 2025.
2000-2001: Uganda
There were 425 reported cases and 224 deaths in an outbreak in Uganda caused this time by the Sudan virus.
Authorities in the East African country were praised for their quick response to the outbreak and limiting its spread. Community work involved educating people on the disease and dispelling misinformation on how it’s spread.
Uganda has also had several outbreaks.
1976: The first known outbreaks
The first known outbreak of Ebola occurred 50 years ago in towns in what was then Sudan and now part of South Sudan. Scientists believe it originated in a cotton factory where workers had contact with bats that were in warehouses, though the source has not been confirmed. It was caused by what later became known as the Sudan virus.
At least 151 people died and 284 cases were reported — many after sick people were taken to hospitals and spread the disease to health workers and others while it was still unknown, according to later studies.
An outbreak months later in northern Congo — which was then called Zaire — had 280 deaths and an extremely high fatality rate and first led scientists to identify the Ebola virus. That outbreak started in a remote village near the Ebola River, which the disease was named after.
The first known Ebola infection outside Africa occurred the same year when a British laboratory technician accidentally pricked himself with a needle while studying samples. He recovered.
Very few cases have been recorded outside Africa since Ebola was identified.” (4)
“The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. This was the seventh outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease since its discovery. There were more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It started in Guinea then quickly spread to neighbouring countries Sierra Leone and Liberia. By July 2014, it had reached the capital cities of these three countries and in August 2014, WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Over the course of the epidemic, the disease spread to 7 additional countries: Italy, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America (USA). Secondary infections occurred in Italy, Mali, Nigeria and USA.
In June 2016, the outbreak was declared over. More than 28 600 people had been infected and 11 325 people had died.” (5)
“The driver of more outbreaks is movement of people, a real pressure driven by climate change, movement of vectors, and changing social demographic pressures.
“That jump between humans and animals is really important, and so changing habitat, changing pressure on sources of food, all of those pieces are really important.”
Recent outbreaks clearly demonstrate the link, says Dr Appleby at CEPI.
“Activities like deforestation, mining, agriculture, handling bush meat and urban expansion are bringing people into closer contact with bats, the filovirus host,” she says.
“For example, the 2024 Rwandan Marburg outbreak has been traced back to a miner in a tin mine where bats were found.
“Encroachment not only increases the contact between people and bats, but it could also push them out of their habitats and cause them to forage in agricultural areas or near homes, creating new opportunities for transmission.”
The other potential worry is if Ebola or Marburg mutated to be able to spread through the air – like Covid-19 or an influenza – instead of through direct contact with the bodily fluid of a victim, which slows its spread somewhat and currently renders the viruses relatively more containable.” (6)
“And perhaps most concerning, many outbreaks are now unfolding in environments already weakened by overlapping crises and political and health insecurity leading to fragile health infrastructure, workforce shortages, misinformation, and limited laboratory capacity.
The new Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC illustrates this clearly. Outbreak response in the region has long been complicated by armed conflict, distrust, and logistical barriers. Health care workers and laboratory personnel are themselves among the casualties. These are not simply biomedical events; they are humanitarian and systems-level crises.
The hantavirus outbreak highlights another challenge: Even pathogens that are relatively rare can quickly generate international concern when they intersect with travel, tourism, and interconnected health systems. In a globally connected world, outbreaks that begin in remote settings rarely stay isolated for long.
These events also underscore the critical importance of international organizations such as the World Health Organization and regional bodies like Africa CDC. Rapid information sharing, coordinated technical guidance, laboratory support, deployment of experts, and cross-border collaboration are essential during outbreaks. Global health emergencies cannot be managed by countries acting alone. Weakening international public health institutions at a time of increasing infectious disease threats risks leaving the world more fragmented, slower to respond, and ultimately less safe.
A new Ebola outbreak is confirmed in a remote Congo province, with 65 deaths recorded
The lesson is not that panic is warranted. It is that preparedness cannot be reactive.
Preparedness is not built during a crisis press conference or after a pathogen has already crossed borders. It requires sustained investment in surveillance systems, laboratory networks, infection prevention and control, health care workforce training, risk communication, and international coordination long before emergencies occur. It requires strengthening institutions even when outbreaks are no longer dominating headlines.
Importantly, preparedness also means recognizing that global health security is collective. An outbreak anywhere can become a threat everywhere if detection, reporting, and response systems are weak. Supporting countries facing outbreaks is not charity; it is a core component of international stability and security.
As mass gatherings such as the FIFA World Cup approach, these conversations become even more relevant. Large-scale international events do not create infectious disease threats, but they can expose vulnerabilities in surveillance, coordination, and health care readiness. The question is not whether another outbreak will occur. It is whether the world has learned enough from recent years to respond more effectively when it does.
Right now, the answer remains uncertain.” (7)
1.Ebola outbreak kills 65 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, by Kat Lay, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/may/15/ebola-outbreak-drc-africa-deaths
2.Large Ebola Outbreak Is Declared in Congo, By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Apoorva Mandavilli, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/world/africa/congo-ebola-outbreak.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
3.A new Ebola outbreak is confirmed in a remote Congo province, with 65 deaths recorded, By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, https://apnews.com/article/congo-ebola-outbreak-ituri-province-63c078e0e43edfcb8b33e440a5c26ef9
4.A look at major Ebola outbreaks and when the disease was first identified, By GERALD IMRAY, https://apnews.com/article/ebola-outbreak-disease-health-congo-africa-f187db59b290ee4c6749872b54f8d735
5.Ebola, West Africa, March 2014-2016, https://www.who.int/emergencies/situations/ebola-outbreak-2014-2016-West-Africa
6.Why are we seeing more outbreaks of the deadliest diseases?, by Maeve Cullinan and Ben Farmer, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/why-are-we-seeing-more-outbreaks-of-the-deadliest-diseases/
7.First hantavirus, now Ebola: What two outbreaks reveal about global preparedness, By Krutika Kuppalli, https://newsroom.wakehealth.edu/news-releases/2026/04/wfirm-team-discovers-gene-pattern
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai