JONATHAN M. METSCH, Dr.P.H. – Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – October 27, 2026 – EBOLA
“The outbreak in Central Africa is the second largest in history, with nearly 10,000 cases reported since it began six months ago.
Health officials have reported cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and France. There have been no reported cases in the United States, and officials say the risk to Americans at home remains low.”
At Rush University Medical Center, members of the hospital’s infectious disease unit recently demonstrated the facility’s capabilities for treating highly infectious diseases, including Ebola.
“We are on the 10th floor in our medical intensive care unit,” said Dr. Brian Stein, Chief Quality Officer at the medical center.
Stein said Rush has specialized infrastructure designed to contain highly infectious dangerous pathogens.
“We have the ability to turn this entire unit to negative pressure,” Stein said.””
“According to Rush officials, only Rush University Medical Center and Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago are designated centers to treat highly infectious diseases such as Ebola.”
Rush CEO Dr. Omar Lateef said hospitals made significant changes following the Ebola scare in 2014, when health systems worked to establish facilities capable of handling infectious disease outbreaks.
“Lateef also pointed to lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the experience reshaped how healthcare systems collaborate during public health emergencies.
“We learn how to break apart fragmentation to work together. Many communities stop working in isolation as one health system and other health system,” Lateef said. “Those learned experiences from the past will help us for the future. If it’s about Ebola or the next infectious disease.”
As health officials continue efforts to control the outbreak overseas, Chicago hospitals say they are relying on lessons from past public health crises and specialized facilities to prepare for the possibility of future infectious disease threats.” (1)
“As fears grow that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo could spread further, Kenya, which announced its first Ebola case three weeks ago and has since had eight more cases, is hoping for the opposite.
Nine cases and two deaths have so far been confirmed.
With the first 20 of the people who came into contact with the first Ebola patient being released, the government has described it as a “milestone worth celebrating”.
The government expects the outbreak to be declared over in less than two months, if efforts to contain the spread holds. But that is assuming there are no more cases, including from the 98 people still in quarantine and due to be freed next week.
Despite the initial release of the people in quarantine, Kenya’s Health Director-General Patrick Amoth has reiterated that the focus was “firmly on the finish line”.
The outbreak can only be declared over after 42 days from the time the last confirmed patient twice tests negative for Ebola, he said on Monday.” (2)
“A Swiss woman being treated for Ebola in Nigeria was medically evacuated to Switzerland with her husband Monday, officials said, as Nigerian authorities continued monitoring 52 people who had been in contact with her.
Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Pate said the woman, the country’s first case in the current outbreak, left the capital, Abuja, early Monday with his approval. Her condition had improved significantly, and she was stable, conscious and able to communicate, he said.
“This does not mean she is not still infectious, hence the strict protocols in place,” Pate wrote on X. Her husband, a Swiss diplomat in Nigeria, has shown no symptoms.
Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health said the couple arrived Monday on a medical evacuation flight. The woman was being treated at Geneva University Hospital, while her husband was in isolation at Zurich University Hospital. The agency said both hospitals were equipped to care for them and that there was no risk to the Swiss public.”
“Nigeria will continue monitoring 52 other contacts, Janabi said.’ (3)
“Is there any hope that an Ebola vaccine or better treatments could tamp down numbers?
No vaccine or treatment is licensed for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola. Several are in the works, but all far from being used in this response.
There is an existing vaccine for Ebola. It’s called Ervebo, but it targets a different species of the disease. It hasn’t been widely deployed, but healthcare workers began receiving the vaccine in late August and researchers just started a clinical trial, dubbed Tumaini after the Swahili word for hope, aimed at testing how well Ervebo works against Bundibugyo. If it proves effective, “that would be amazing, that could make a difference,” says Bhadelia. But she cautions that vaccines and new treatments are not a silver bullet.
“Targeted medical countermeasures are necessary, but they are not sufficient,” she says. These interventions need to be coupled with basic public health measures, like tracing all the contacts for a newly infected person and isolating and treating those who are stricken. Improving these strategies takes more work and resources, she says, and she worries that the needed support may not come fast enough.
“In this moment, the question that scares me more than anything is will the international community turn its eyes and forget about DRC?” she says. “I am worried the funding will dry out, that we will not keep paying attention to a public health disaster that is much deeper and bigger in this moment than people realize.”” (4)
“The US government will increase measures aimed at preventing entry by people exposed to Ebola with a new requirement for US-bound air travelers to attest they have not been in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the prior 21 days, according to a memo on Thursday seen by Reuters.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May adopted rules barring airline passengers who have been in the DRC, the center of the 2026 outbreak, in the prior three weeks. The restrictions were extended to US citizens in July.
The new CDC order takes effect November 3 and requires all US-bound airline passengers to file digital or paper attestations.”
As part of the Ebola measures, the CDC since earlier this year has also barred foreign nationals from the US if they have been in Uganda or South Sudan in the prior three weeks.” (5)
Swiss woman with Ebola evacuated from Nigeria to Geneva, https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigerias-ebola-patient-medically-evacuated-country-arise-tv-reports-2026-10-26/
First person inoculated in trial for Ebola vaccine to protect against strain behind DRC outbreak, https://abcnews.com/Health/1st-person-inoculated-trial-ebola-vaccine-protect-strain/story?id=137599211
1.The Ebola outbreak is breaking records — and just marked a grim milestone, by Jonathan Lambert, https://www.npr.org/2026/10/27/g-s1-150136/ebola-outbreak-milestone-democratic-republic-congo-vaccine
2.Is Ebola under control in Kenya after nine cases confirmed?, by Basillioh Rukanga, Nairobihttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c693z948px0jo
3.First confirmed Ebola patient in Nigeria evacuated to Switzerland, By DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN and MARK BANCHEREAU, https://apnews.com/article/nigeria-ebola-switzerland-patient-transfer-6390efb6d55bb43a40695425ef2317fb
4.The Ebola outbreak is breaking records — and just marked a grim milestone, by Jonathan Lambert, https://www.npr.org/2026/10/27/g-s1-150136/ebola-outbreak-milestone-democratic-republic-congo-vaccine
5. S to tighten Ebola screening with new air passenger declarations, by David Shepardson, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/us-to-tighten-ebola-screening-with-new-air-passenger-declarations/ar-AA2fQOyl?ocid=BingNewsSerp
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai