More than 220 people are thought to have died, and more than 900 people to have been infected, in an outbreak of Bundibugyo Virus in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a press release issued by the United Nations on 25 May 2025. Bundibugyo Virus, properly Bundibugyo ebolavirus, is a member of the Ebola Virus Family, Filoviridae, which causes an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever, and is often referred to simply as 'Ebola'.
The World Health Organization was first notified of the outbreak on 5 May 2026, as an unknown illness with a high mortality rate which had already claimed the lives of four health workers in the Mongbwalu Health Zone of Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. The identity of the disease as Bundibugyo Virus was determined from samples sent to the Institut national de recherche biomédicale in Kinshasa on 15 May.
By this time the Virus had spread to the Rwampara and Bunia health zones, also in Ituri Province, with 246 reported cases and 80 fatalities. Health workers began investigating clusters of deaths with compatible symptoms in the community. A case was also confirmed in Uganda, after an elderly man from Democratic Republic of Congo was admitted to a private hospital with severe symptoms and subsequently died. This patient was subsequently confirmed as having been infected with Bundibugyo Virus by the Central Emergency Surveillance and Response Support Laboratory at Wandegeya. His remains were subsequently returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. A second case was reported in Uganda on 16 May, this time a Ugandan national who had recently returned from Democratic Republic of Congo. This patient is being treated in Uganda; no transmission of the Virus in Uganda has been reported.
By 21 May the outbreak had spread to North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, with 746 suspected cases and 176 deaths thought to have been caused by Bundibugyo Virus, although only 85 cases, including ten fatalities have been confirmed by laboratory analysis. No further cases had been reported in Uganda, but an American national who had been working as a surgeon in Democratic Republic of Congo was confirmed as having the Virus and airlifted to Germany for treatment.
Bundibugyo Virus was first described in 2008 following an outbreak in Bundibugyo District Uganda. Only one subsequent outbreak has been reported prior to 2026, in Province Orientale, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2012. Thus, although the Virus is closely related to Ebola, and produces a similar disease, there has been no specific treatment developed for it, and no vaccine to prevent its spread. This has made it difficult to implement an effective treatment and containment program against a disease with a 30% fatality rate.
Ituri Province is located in the northeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, with borders with Uganda and South Sudan. It has a large, if generally informal, mining sector, which attracts workers from neighbouring provinces and countries. The infrastructure of Ituri Province is generally weak, with healthcare services largely dependent on support by aid programs run by western countries, particularly the United States. These programs have been cut heavily by the current US administration, further weakening healthcare provision.
To make matters worse, a long running conflict in the province has seen an upsurge in violence since December 2025, with fighting between the Convention for the Popular Revolution and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo leading to at least 40 people being killed and around 100 000 being displaced. The Convention for the Popular Revolution is one of several rebel groups active in the region, and has been accused by the Congolese Government of forcibly recruiting child soldiers and being a front for the Ugandan and/or Rwandan governments to exploit the regions mineral wealth. Nevertheless, the Convention for the Popular Revolution has sometimes worked alongside the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ugandan Army to fight against other groups, notably the Allied Democratic Forces, a group thought to be allied to Islamic State.
All of this has made it extremely difficult to implement effective track-and-trace and treatment programs to contain the Bundibugyo Virus outbreak. To complicate things further, a disinformation campaign appears to have been circulating on social media, adding to the distrust of outsiders and officialdom in general which is prevalent in the local population, something that has led to attacks on healthcare workers and facilities. Local people have reportedly set fire to two treatment centres in which patients were being treated in isolation, following a dispute over a safe burials program implemented to prevent the spread of the disease. This involves the burial of the deceased by healthcare workers with a minimal number of people present, and goes against local customs of large funerals and ritually washing the dead by relatives.
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