One of the largest Ebola outbreaks on record grows in DR Congo and Uganda

One of the largest Ebola outbreaks on record is unfolding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, with more than 1,700 confirmed cases since April, according to a Nature World View commentary published on 14 July 2026. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus and has drawn dozens of governments and health organisations into the public-health response. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02148-6

Both countries declared the outbreak on 15 May 2026. In its opening days officials reported 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths; days later, on 18 May, an international modelling study by Imperial College London suggested the true number of infections could be far higher, prompting researchers to warn that the early scale of the outbreak was deeply worrying. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01646-x

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared a "public health emergency of continental security" and has coordinated an evidence-based response — community reporting, case isolation and infection-control protocols in health facilities — jointly with the World Health Organization. The model, centred on community engagement and a single shared plan, budget and team, is being held up as a template for global health cooperation after deep cuts to US international aid. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02148-6

The response has also exposed fractures in global health governance. After closing the US Agency for International Development and cutting overseas medical funding in 2025, the United States imposed travel bans in May on foreign nationals from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan and funded a field hospital in Kenya to treat exposed and infected Americans locally rather than repatriating them; Canada and the Bahamas followed with similar bans. WHO and Africa CDC criticised the restrictions as lacking a scientific basis, noting such measures mainly disrupt trade and supply chains. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02148-6

Separate Nature reporting notes that trials of Ebola drugs have begun amid the outbreak and that questions remain about how it started. The episode underscores both the continuing threat of filovirus emergence in Central Africa and the shifting architecture of international outbreak response. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01607-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01645-y

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