Health authorities confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this week, with more than 300 suspected cases and at least 88 deaths already recorded. The World Health Organization declared the situation a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday as cases crossed into neighboring Uganda.
The outbreak was detected in Congo’s Ituri province, on the border with Uganda. It marks the latest escalation of a disease that has repeatedly emerged in sub-Saharan Africa since the late 1970s. The WHO said health authorities are tracking the spread and implementing containment measures across the affected regions.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare strain known to be less lethal than other Ebola variants but for which no specific treatments or vaccines currently exist. According to the WHO, three viruses in the Ebola family are known to cause large outbreaks: the Ebola virus, the Sudan virus, and the Bundibugyo virus.
Approved vaccines and treatments have been developed only for the Ebola virus strain. This means medical teams responding to the current crisis must rely on supportive care and isolation protocols rather than targeted immunizations or antiviral drugs.
Ebola disease spreads through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person, including blood, feces, or vomit, or through contact with contaminated surfaces. Symptoms typically appear between two days and three weeks after exposure, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness begins with flu-like symptoms such as fever, aches, and fatigue, later progressing to gastrointestinal distress, rashes, seizures, and bleeding.
The average fatality rate for Ebola across all strains hovers around 50%, though historical rates have varied from 25% to 90% depending on the strain and healthcare infrastructure, the WHO said.
Congo has a long history of battling the disease. The second-largest Ebola outbreak on record occurred in the country from 2018 to 2020 across North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri provinces. That outbreak, driven by the Ebola virus, resulted in more than 3,400 reported cases and over 2,200 deaths, yielding a 66% fatality rate according to the CDC.
The worst Ebola epidemic on record unfolded across West Africa between 2013 and 2016. More than 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths were recorded as the disease spread extensively through Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, with isolated cases appearing in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain among travelers and returning health workers.
The Bundibugyo strain first emerged in western Uganda in 2007 and 2008. That outbreak resulted in 131 reported cases and 42 deaths. CDC researchers noted at the time that the Bundibugyo fatality rate appeared lower than that of the primary Ebola virus, but they had already established that medical countermeasures would be limited.
Ebola was first identified in 1976 following nearly simultaneous outbreaks in what was then Sudan (now part of South Sudan) and northern Congo, then known as Zaire. Scientists believe the 1976 Sudan outbreak may have originated in a cotton factory where workers had contact with bats in warehouses, though that source was never confirmed. The subsequent outbreak in a remote Zaire village near the Ebola River resulted in 280 deaths and an extremely high fatality rate, prompting researchers to name the virus after the nearby river.
A family of fruit bats is widely believed to be the natural hosts of the Ebola viruses, while other animals such as apes and monkeys can also carry the infection, the WHO said. Congo has experienced more than a dozen significant outbreaks since the virus was first documented, including one as recently as late 2025.