JONATHAN M. METSCH, Dr.P.H. – Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – June 17, 2026 – Ebola
“India’s devastating second wave of COVID-19 peaked in May 2021, overwhelming hospitals, crematoria and a country of 1.4 billion people. Officially, India recorded a high of about 400,000 infections and around 5,000 deaths a day during this time. Subsequent analyses suggest the true toll was substantially higher1.
Five years later, those memories remain relevant because the question that haunted the world then has not gone away: are we better prepared for the next pandemic?
The answer is being tested in real time. In recent months, two viral outbreaks have unfolded. A cluster of Hantavirus infections aboard the Antarctic cruise ship MV Hondius resulted in multiple deaths and triggered an international public-health response. Ebola has returned to central Africa, causing over 700 infections and over 150 deaths by 13 June, with transmission continuing in several affected regions.
Neither outbreak is on the scale of COVID-19. Yet they offer a revealing snapshot of the strengths and weaknesses of global preparedness in 2026.
The contrast is striking. Ebola is a familiar adversary. Public-health agencies have spent decades studying its epidemiology, building surveillance systems, developing vaccines, refining treatment protocols and creating mechanisms for rapid international response. Hantavirus, by contrast, remains a relatively neglected zoonotic threat that rarely commands sustained attention outside specialist circles.
One preparedness model does not fit all
The Ebola outbreak demonstrates how repeated encounters with a pathogen can build institutional memory. Surveillance systems were activated quickly. Diagnostic pathways already existed. Outbreak investigators knew what to look for and how to respond. Scientific networks were mobilised rapidly, drawing on years of accumulated experience.
The Hantavirus outbreak exposed a different reality. The pathogen emerged in an unusual setting involving international travel, private-sector operators and multinational passengers. Early symptoms resembled more common respiratory illnesses. Detection was slower, responsibilities were fragmented and coordination proved more complex.
The lesson is important. Preparedness is often strongest for the crises we have experienced before and weakest for those that do not fit established templates. The comparison highlights a central weakness in global preparedness: systems are often designed around known threats rather than uncertainty itself.” (1)
“The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda is still spreading one month after the outbreak was declared. The total number of confirmed cases surged between Monday and Tuesday to over 800, an increase of about 300 since last week.
The United Nations’ World Health Organization has warned that the virus is still “increasing” in its “geographic spread” in Congo, and experts say it’s a race against time to stop it from mushrooming into a wider health crisis.
In the epicenter of Ituri province, Congolese security forces fired warning shots to break up an angry crowd of people trying to take the body of an Ebola victim home. Health workers were trying to remove the body for the community’s safety — even in death, victims are highly contagious.
The WHO has said that “intense community transmission continues” in the Central African region, and new cases and deaths have surged.
WHO Incident Manager Dr. Marie-Roseline Belizaire told CBS News deaths were still being reported by the community in Congo, and “that means we are missing cases,” with the disease still spreading undetected in the population.” (2)
“The deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has not yet reached its peak, the Red Cross said on Tuesday, June 16, warning it could take a year to halt the spread. Since the outbreak was declared in the DRC on May 15, 808 cases have been confirmed in the country, including 192 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Speaking from Bunia, the capital of Ituri, the northeastern province, which is the outbreak’s epicenter, a top official from the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies said the crisis appeared far from over. “Here in Bunia, what I can see is that we did not reach the peak of the epidemic,” Bruno Michon, the IFRC’s operations manager for the Ebola outbreak, told reporters in Geneva by video call.
Like a number of other organizations working on the Ebola response on the ground, he said the IFRC was concerned about a dire lack of testing capacity, warning: “It’s very difficult to know exactly to what extent the epidemic is spreading.” “The peak is, I think, not beyond us, but in front of us,” he said, adding, “We are afraid that this could last one year” before ending the outbreak.” (3)
“Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have reported a record one-day increase in Ebola cases since the current outbreak was first detected one month ago.
“The DRC Ministry of Health reported 72 new confirmed Ebola cases on June 13, bringing the total number of cases to 782. Additionally, 29 deaths were recorded, bringing to 181 the number of fatalities that have occurred in the last month.”
“Contact tracing remains a concern. Health officials said only 56.5% of identified contacts have been followed up on, far below the desired 90%-95% target needed to contain the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).” (4)
“The head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo could be the worst ever, saying that currently tens of thousands of contacts of those ill with the disease had not been traced.
“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon it will be worse than what we had in West Africa and eastern DRC,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya told a virtual meeting of African heads of state in Burundi.
He was referring to the outbreak that affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2014-2016 that killed over 11,000 people and a less deadly 2018 outbreak in Congo.” (5)
“Before health authorities could declare the outbreak on 15 May 2026, samples were transported to the country’s referral laboratory in the capital, Kinshasa, for further analysis to determine the type of Ebola virus causing the illnesses and deaths in Ituri and neighbouring provinces.
Decentralized testing does more than reduce transport times and logistical constraints—it can save lives. In remote communities such as Mongbwalu, where poor roads and challenging terrain can delay access to health services, the ability to diagnose cases quickly is critical to ensuring timely treatment and preventing further spread of the disease.
The RadiOne diagnostic devices that have been deployed in the field in Mongbwalu and other affected areas in Ituri and elsewhere can deliver results in under one hour.
Daily testing capacity in Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, and Mongbwalu has increased from 30 to 80 tests. A standard Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test—a highly reliable diagnosis technique—complements the rapid diagnostic devices, transforming field laboratories into fully operational decentralized diagnostic centres.” (6)
Africa’s Ebola outbreaks complicated by victims who prefer traditional healers over hospitals. https://apnews.com/article/uganda-congo-ebola-spirituality-religion-faith-healers-b101f804d38b3dcfcde27ec838078ee9
WHO issues comprehensive guidelines on filovirus disease, including Ebola and Marburg disease, https://www.who.int/news/item/17-06-2026-who-issues-comprehensive-guidelines-on-filovirus-disease–including-ebola-and-marburg-disease
Inside Ebola country: NPR reports from eastern DR Congo’s outbreak zone, https://www.npr.org/2026/06/15/nx-s1-5856414/ebola-congo-bunia-health-crisis
1.What the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks tell us about pandemic preparedness, By Shahid Jameel, https://www.nature.com/articles/d44151-026-00116-7
2.Ebola outbreak still spreading in Congo, and “that means we are missing cases,” WHO says, By Ramy Inocencio, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-outbreak-2026-congo-uganda-still-spreading-who/#:~:text=The%20Ebola%20outbreak,in%20the%20population.
3.Red Cross warns that Ebola crisis in DRC is far from over, by Le Monde with AFP, https://www.lemonde.fr/en/health/article/2026/06/16/red-cross-warns-that-ebola-crisis-in-drc-is-far-from-over_6754551_14.html
4.DRC reports record number of Ebola cases in a single day as outbreak hits 1-month mark, By Dada Jovanovic, Zoe Magee, and Mary Kekatos, https://abcnews.com/Health/drc-reports-record-number-ebola-cases-single-day/story?id=133883214
5.Congo Ebola outbreak may be worst ever, Africa CDC says, By Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/congo-ebola-outbreak-may-be-worst-ever-africa-cdc-says-2026-06-16/
6.Decentralized testing speeds up Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, https://www.afro.who.int/countries/democratic-republic-of-congo/news/decentralized-testing-speeds-ebola-response-democratic-republic-congo
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai