A new wave of Ebola infections has been confirmed in Uganda, amplifying regional public health concerns over the spreading Bundibugyo variant outbreak that originated in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Ugandan health authorities announced three additional confirmed cases on May 24, bringing the country’s total case count in this current outbreak to five. Among the newly infected individuals are a driver who transported the country’s first confirmed Ebola patient and a healthcare worker exposed while providing care to infected patients. Public health teams are currently monitoring all known close contacts of the confirmed cases and ramping up contact tracing efforts to halt further transmission of the virus.
These new detections come just days after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) issued an urgent warning, naming 10 regional nations at heightened risk of cross-border spread of the highly contagious Bundibugyo Ebola strain from the DRC. The World Health Organization (WHO) has already upgraded its national risk assessment for the DRC outbreak to “very high” and labeled the regional risk level as “high”, while assessing the global risk as low at this stage.
As of the latest update, the DRC has recorded nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths linked to the current outbreak, which is centered in the country’s northeastern Ituri Province. Aid organizations operating in the region report critical shortages of basic medical supplies, a shortfall partially driven by recent cuts to international foreign aid, most notably from the United States. The Bundibugyo variant of Ebola carries an estimated mortality rate of up to 50 percent, and no specifically approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists for this strain.
WHO officials emphasize that multiple overlapping factors have left the DRC uniquely vulnerable to a large-scale outbreak: delayed detection of initial cases, the lack of approved medical countermeasures for this specific variant, ongoing armed conflict in Ituri Province that disrupts response efforts, and high population mobility across the country’s porous borders. In response to the growing cross-border threat, Uganda has already suspended all public transport services between its territory and the DRC in an attempt to slow transmission.
Tensions and instability have also plagued response efforts at the epicenter of the outbreak in the DRC. For the second time in one week, an Ebola treatment tent in the town of Mongbwalu was set on fire by local residents, forcing 18 suspected Ebola patients to flee the facility. Earlier unrest also led to the destruction of a separate treatment center in Rwampara, sparked by community tensions surrounding the retrieval of a deceased Ebola patient.
Africa CDC director Jean Kaseya identified the 10 at-risk nations as Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. The regional public health body is currently working to develop a coordinated, cross-border response strategy to contain the outbreak, with a key focus on addressing longstanding weaknesses in the region’s chronically underfunded public health systems that leave countries vulnerable to epidemic spread.