Five people, including a child, are known to have died and another 35 people are reported to be ill in an outbreak of an unknown haemorrhagic fever in the Mpanda Commune in Bubanza Province, Burundi, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization's Africa Regional Office on 11 April 2026. The disease was first reported on 28 March 2026, with several members of a household in the village of Kibuye being the first affected. The disease subsequently spread to contacts of the original victims, with six households now affected.
Patients have been admitted to the Mpanda General Hospital with a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, blood in urine, fatigue and abdominal pain, and in some cases jaundice and anaemia. Such symptoms are consistent with an haemorrhagic fever such as Ebola or Marburg Virus, however, tests for Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley Fever, Yellow Fever, and Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever have all come back negative, raising the possibility that this represents a new, as yet unknown, disease. Samples have been sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo for further analysis.
In the absence of a diagnosis, health authorities in Burundi has deployed joint team of experts from the country’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre and the National Reference Laboratory to the region to strengthen disease surveillance, field investigation, clinical care, laboratory diagnosis and infection prevention and control, while also providing logistical support to sustain key operations. Local people are advised to maintain good hygiene standards, practice social distancing, and to seek immediate help should they develop any symptoms.
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