Ebola Response Raised to Highest Level As Outbreak in DRC Tops 300 Deaths
- The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has raised its Ebola outbreak response to its highest emergency level
- The DRC outbreak has now recorded more than 1,200 confirmed cases and over 300 deaths, making it the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record
- Africa CDC has warned that if contact tracing does not improve, the outbreak could become the largest in history
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INTERNATIONAL - The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention activated its highest level of emergency response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 26 June 2026.
It was a signal that American health authorities view the situation as urgent, large in scale and complex. The last time the CDC activated a level 1 response was during the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak, which infected more than 28,000 people and killed over 11,000.
CDC incident manager Satish Pillai said the upgrade reflects how seriously the agency's leadership is treating the crisis.
"We are very concerned about the trajectory of cases, which are rising rapidly, as well as the continued geographic spread," he said.
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How bad is the outbreak
By 25 June 2026, the DRC Health Ministry had confirmed 1,203 cases and 321 deaths in what has become the country's 17th Ebola outbreak and the third largest ever recorded globally.
Uganda has confirmed 20 cases and 2 deaths, all in the capital Kampala. France also reported one confirmed case. The outbreak began in the Ituri province and has since spread to the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, raising serious concerns about how widely the virus is moving across the region.
The strain causing this outbreak is the Bundibugyo virus, which is different from the Zaire strain responsible for most previous outbreaks.
There are no licensed vaccines or treatments for Bundibugyo, making it harder to manage. It is only the third time this strain has caused an outbreak since Ebola was first identified in 1976.
Why experts are worried about a bigger crisis
Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya warned at a press conference that the situation could spiral into the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded if contact tracing does not improve quickly.
Health workers in the DRC are currently only managing to track and monitor around 30% of the contacts of confirmed patients. The figure needs to be at least 80% to bring the outbreak under control.
Africa CDC convened a meeting on 26 June 2026 of officials from the DRC, Uganda and 11 other high-risk African countries to strengthen regional preparedness and share lessons from the response so far.
South Sudan is considered especially vulnerable. The country has some of the weakest health infrastructure in the region and shares a border with the northeastern DRC provinces at the heart of the outbreak.
The US has restricted entry for travellers who have been in the DRC, Uganda, or neighbouring South Sudan in the previous 21 days, with only US citizens or nationals allowed to enter from those countries since 22 May 2026. The CDC recommends avoiding non-essential travel to the affected provinces.
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More on the Ebola situation
Briefly News previously reported on the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, which left people concerned after news of the crisis broke on 15 May 2026.
President Cyril Ramaphosa urged African nations to act urgently as the WHO raised the alarm over the outbreak's spread.
Families in the DRC were left devastated after traditional funeral rites were outlawed amid the outbreak.
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Source: Briefly News
