The 2026 Bundibugyo Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda

This page summarizes a CDC report from early in the outbreak, with figures as of June 2, 2026. Case counts and guidance have changed since; check CDC's current Ebola situation updates.

Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD) is a type of Ebola disease, a severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever. The virus was first identified in 2007 during an outbreak in Uganda with 149 suspected cases and 37 deaths, and a 2012 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused 56 laboratory-confirmed cases and 17 deaths. On May 15, 2026, the health ministries of DRC and Uganda declared new outbreaks.

The outbreak

The first clusters were found among health care workers in DRC, who had acute fever, vomiting, diarrhea and, in some cases, bleeding. As of June 2:

• 378 confirmed cases — 363 in DRC and 15 in Uganda;
• 63 confirmed deaths — 62 in DRC and 1 in Uganda;
• most cases were in adults aged 18 to 49, divided roughly equally between women and men; and
• Uganda's cases mainly involved travelers arriving from DRC, with further spread to health care workers.

DRC's National Institute of Biomedical Research confirmed the virus. Initial genome sequencing pointed to a new spillover from an unknown animal host.

How it spreads and is treated

Based on other Ebola outbreaks, Bundibugyo virus probably spreads through direct contact with an infected person's body fluids, including blood, vomit, feces, urine, tears, sweat, saliva, breast milk, amniotic fluid, vaginal fluids and semen. The incubation period is expected to be 2 to 21 days, and patients are most infectious late in the illness and after death, when their fluids carry the most virus. Treatment is supportive care; no medicines or vaccines had been approved for BVD.

Americans exposed

One U.S. health care worker in DRC developed symptoms, tested positive and was flown to Germany for treatment. Six other U.S. citizens with high-risk exposures, health care workers and their close contacts, were taken to Germany and Czechia for monitoring. No cases had been reported in the United States.

The response

• May 17: CDC launched a public health emergency response, and the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
• May 18: the Department of Homeland Security and CDC announced new measures, including temporary U.S. entry restrictions.
• May 19: CDC issued a health advisory, began enhanced airport screening and released interim guidance for health departments managing travelers. It also posted a Level 3 travel notice for DRC (reconsider nonessential travel to provinces with cases) and a Level 2 notice for Uganda (practice enhanced precautions).

At home, CDC provided information for the public, clinical guidance for health care providers and public health guidance for state, tribal, local and territorial partners; its Laboratory Response Network supported testing at more than 40 U.S. laboratories, and CDC offered clinical consultations and risk assessments for returning U.S. citizens. Abroad, it supported DRC and Uganda with epidemiologic investigation and contact tracing, laboratory testing, data management, infection control, border surveillance and community engagement, and helped assess readiness in neighboring countries. It also built an Ebola dashboard for U.S. agencies and worked with the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and the National Institutes of Health on medical countermeasures.

A difficult setting

The outbreak was unfolding in areas with limited public health infrastructure, armed conflict, frequent displacement and heavy cross-border movement. The authors warned that it was probably larger than the available data showed and could prove hard to contain.

Sources

• Delayo L. Zomahoun, Mary Adetinuke Boyd, Margaret A. Honein, Joel M. Montgomery, Emily Zielinski-Gutierrez, Elissa Meites, Athalia Christie, Satish K. Pillai and the CDC 2026 Ebola Response, "Notes from the Field: Outbreak of Ebola Disease Caused by Bundibugyo Virus — Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, May 2026," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/75/wr/mm7522e3.htm