DRC Confirms New Ebola Outbreak With 80 Deaths As Uganda Reports First Imported Case

• The Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in its eastern Ituri province, with 80 deaths recorded and 246 suspected cases reported
• The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which is different from the Zaire strain that caused most of Congo's previous outbreaks
• Uganda has confirmed one imported case after a Congolese man died in Kampala, with health authorities across the region racing to contain the spread

Nerissa Naidoo, a journalist at Briefly News since 2024, previously worked as an editor, content creator, researcher, and ghostwriter before joining the team.

AFRICA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - The Democratic Republic of Congo is dealing with its seventeenth Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified there in 1976. The health ministry confirmed on 15 May 2026 that 80 people had died and 246 suspected cases had been reported in the eastern Ituri province.

The outbreak is centred in the health zones of Rwampara, Mongwalu, and Bunia, with laboratory tests in Kinshasa confirming 13 positive cases and eight confirmed cases of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.

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The World Health Organisation said it first learned of suspected cases on 5 May 2026 and sent a team to Ituri to investigate. Still, the field samples came back negative before a laboratory in Kinshasa confirmed positive results on Thursday, 14 May 2026.

Why is this outbreak harder to fight?

The Bundibugyo strain at the centre of this outbreak is not the one that most of the world's Ebola treatments and vaccines were built to fight. Congolese virologist Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who was part of the team that co-discovered Ebola, pointed out that all but one of Congo's previous 16 outbreaks were caused by the Zaire strain.

The presence of a different strain means that the response teams cannot simply rely on the tools that worked before, adding an extra layer of difficulty to an already serious situation.

The suspected starting point of the outbreak is a nurse who died at the Evangelical Medical Centre in Bunia. The nurse came down with symptoms that included fever, bleeding, vomiting, and severe weakness. The DRC government has since activated its public health emergency operations centre, stepped up laboratory surveillance, and sent rapid response teams to the affected areas.

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The WHO released $500,000 from its emergency fund to support contact tracing, testing, and clinical care on the ground.

Spread across borders a growing concern

Health authorities are worried about how quickly the virus could cross into neighbouring countries. The affected areas in Ituri are close to both Uganda and South Sudan, and there is a lot of movement between these regions. This is mainly due to mining activity in the area.

Uganda confirmed on 15 May 2026 that a Congolese man had died in Kampala from the Bundibugyo strain. Authorities said the case was brought in from Congo and that no local transmission had been confirmed.

The situation is made worse by an ongoing security crisis in Ituri, where clashes between rival militia groups have left health facilities overwhelmed or completely out of action in some parts of the province.

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Source: Briefly News