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At least 118 dead in Congo Ebola outbreak

2026-05-19 07:26:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

At least 118 deaths have been reported from an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with more than 390 suspected cases, local officials said.

In addition to updating the death toll, a DR Congo government spokesman said cases were now being reported in a wider area.

There are also two confirmed cases and one death in Uganda, says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak of the current strain of Ebola, which is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, an international emergency.

As this deadly Ebola outbreak continues to spread, the Congolese government has tried to reassure people that its response teams are working hard to track and investigate suspected infections - and that there is no need to panic.

However, with cases now identified in new areas, including Nyakunde in Ituri Province, Butembo in North Kivu and the city of Goma, concern is inevitably growing.

An American doctor in the DR Congo is among those with a confirmed case, the medical missionary group they were working with and the CDC said.

The individual will now be flown to Germany for treatment, they told CBS News, the BBC's American partner.

While the CDC did not name the American working in the country, the medical missionary group Serge said one of its American doctors, Peter Stafford, had tested positive for Ebola.

Two other doctors from the group who were exposed while treating patients, including Stafford's wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, had no symptoms and were following quarantine protocols, the group said in a statement.

CBS News also cited sources who said at least six Americans have been exposed to the Ebola virus during the outbreak in the DR Congo.

The CDC said it was supporting the "safe withdrawal of a small number of Americans who have been directly affected," but did not confirm how many.

The US government is reportedly looking to arrange transportation for the small group of Americans in the DR Congo to a safe quarantine location, a source told the health news site STAT.

Citing a source, the site adds that the group could be sent to a US military base in Germany, although this has not been confirmed.

The CDC declined to answer direct questions about the U.S. citizens who are said to have been infected during a press conference on Sunday.
In an update on Monday, the public health agency said the risk to the U.S. was relatively low, but said it would introduce a series of measures to prevent the disease from entering the country.

This includes monitoring travelers coming from affected areas and imposing entry restrictions on non-US passport holders if they have been to Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or South Sudan in the past 21 days.

The CDC said it will collaborate with airlines and other partners to conduct contact tracing of passengers, increase testing capacity and hospital readiness to respond to the outbreak.

The US has also issued a Level Four travel warning - the most severe level - against travel to the DR Congo.

The WHO has said the outbreak in the eastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo is a public health emergency of international concern, but does not meet the criteria for a pandemic.

The agency has also warned that it could be "a much larger outbreak" than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant risk of local and regional spread.

More than 28,600 people were infected with Ebola during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest outbreak of the virus since its discovery in 1976.

The disease spread to a number of countries within and outside West Africa, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy, killing 11,325 people.

Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the BBC earlier that the number of suspected cases had reached almost 400.

He said that in the absence of effective vaccines and drugs, people should follow public health measures, including guidelines for handling funerals of those who have died from the disease.

"We don't want people to get infected because of funerals," he told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

Community funerals, where people helped wash the bodies of their loved ones, contributed to the infection of many people in the early stages of the major outbreak more than a decade ago.

The WHO has advised the DR Congo and Uganda, two countries with confirmed cases, to carry out cross-border screening to avoid the spread of the virus.

It has also urged neighboring countries to "increase their preparedness and preparedness," including surveillance in health institutions and communities.

Neighbouring Rwanda said it would tighten controls along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo as a "precautionary measure", while Nigeria said it was "closely monitoring the situation"./CNA, translated by BBC