KINSHASA: The official death toll in an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo now exceeds more than 400, according to official figures released on Thursday.&nbsp;The highly infectious disease has claimed 438 lives among the 1,406 people confirmed infected -- a fatality rate of just over 31 percent -- since the outbreak was declared on May 15, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) said in its latest report.&nbsp;A first case was also recently reported in the major northeastern city of Kisangani, nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the epicenter of the crisis.&nbsp;A test on the body of a 24-year-old pregnant woman was positive for Ebola, the INSP said.&nbsp;&quot;The deceased&#39;s body was secretly transported by motorcycle to Kisangani&quot; from the health zone of Nia Nia in Ituri, the health authorities said.&nbsp;Kisangani is a city of 1.5 million residents and the capital of Tshopo province.&nbsp;The body of a deceased Ebola victim remains highly infectious and in many cases the virus has been transmitted during burial rites.&nbsp;The outbreak has been caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus for which no vaccine or specific treatment exists.&nbsp;Clinical trials are due to begin.&nbsp;The center of the outbreak -- whose true scale is hard to assess -- was in the northeastern Ituri province, where more than 83 percent of deaths have occurred.&nbsp;The province borders Uganda and South Sudan.&nbsp;The virus has also spread to the neighboring provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.&nbsp;Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

Africa

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo kills 438 people among 1,406 confirmed cases. The Bundibugyo strain spreads across Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu.

DR Congo's official Ebola death toll exceeds 400

KINSHASA:&nbsp;A deadly Ebola outbreak has spread to a fourth province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, meaning the country&#39;s entire northeast home to around 15 million people is affected. So far, the epidemic has claimed 360 lives out of 1,274 confirmed cases, according to figures from the World Health Organization. The DRC declared its 17th outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic fever on May 15. This time, it is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment. Clinical trials are set to begin in the coming days, according to the WHO, which has issued an international alert over the disease. The conflict-hit Ituri province is the epicentre of the outbreak, reporting 1,165 cases and 301 deaths, according to health authorities. Scientists and aid workers say the real numbers are likely higher. Until now, two other provinces had been affected: North Kivu and South Kivu. Twenty cases, including two deaths, have also been reported across the border in Uganda. Haut-Uele, bordering South Sudan and the Central African Republic, is now the fourth affected province. One case was detected after an infected person travelled from Bunia, Ituri&#39;s capital, into Haut-Uele, according to a source at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB). That person has since died, another health source told AFP. Authorities are now trying to trace the chain of transmission and identify contacts. In many cases, the virus has spread at funerals, where the highly infectious bodies of Ebola victims are handled. For weeks, aid workers, facing mistrust among local communities, have struggled to plan safe burials in affected areas to prevent contact with the dead. In the DRC, as in much of Africa, funerals often last several days, during which family and friends traditionally touch the body of the deceased. Health centres have reported incidents of angry confrontations after relatives demanded they hand over the bodies of their family member.

the Ebola Treatment Center of the Center Médical Évangélique (CME), in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)

A deadly Ebola outbreak spreads to a fourth province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 360 people among 1,274 confirmed cases. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine, while authorities race to trace infections and contain transmission.

Ebola outbreak in DR Congo spreads to fourth province

PARIS: France on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of Ebola identified on its territory, a doctor who had flown back from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is fighting a major outbreak. The case is the first of the deadly haemorrhagic fever identified outside the African continent during the current outbreak, which has also affected Uganda. It is the first time France has detected Ebola. In 2014, during a major outbreak in West Africa, two patients were transported to France, but they had been diagnosed abroad. The health ministry said it had identified &quot;a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory&quot;. The patient &quot;boarded a commercial flight from Kinshasa and was almost asymptomatic -- except for headaches&quot;, the ministry said. Their condition &quot;slightly deteriorated during the flight&quot;, after which they were immediately isolated and taken into care upon landing in Paris, even before the disease was officially identified, the ministry added. The patient was in a &quot;stable condition,&quot; and their viral load was &quot;very low&quot;, the ministry added. Efforts were underway to identify potential contacts. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu&#39;s office said he was monitoring the situation &quot;very closely&quot;, but the health ministry stressed that the risk of transmission remained low. ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action), an international medical humanitarian organization, said the patient was one of its doctors. US surgeon recoveredThe DRC&#39;s 17th Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 after several unexplained deaths in the mineral-rich but volatile eastern Ituri province plagued by armed groups. According to the latest official figures, more than 1,000 cases have been recorded, including 267 deaths, representing a fatality rate of around 25%. Many experts consider it likely that the scale of the outbreak has been underestimated, as it is affecting remote regions. The Bundibugyo strain of the virus that has caused the outbreak currently has no approved vaccine or treatment. Existing Ebola vaccines, developed between 2018 and 2019, are only effective against the Zaire strain, which caused previous major outbreaks. In May, an American surgeon who contracted Ebola in the DRC was flown to Germany for treatment. A Berlin hospital discharged the missionary earlier this month, saying he had recovered following 17 days of medical care. The doctor, identified as Peter Stafford of the Serge charity, had received care that included &quot;experimental therapies currently being trialed for this type of virus&quot;, said the hospital. Public health experts estimate that the risk of the outbreak spreading worldwide remains low, due to the relatively low contagiousness of the Ebola virus. &quot;The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) considers the risk of infection to be low for European residents and travelers going to areas with active transmission, and very low for the general European population,&quot; said the French health ministry.

 A team of doctors wearing protective suits works in a red zone inside the morgue, close a body bag containing the remains of a man who died from Ebola virus disease on June 13, 2026. (AFP)

Europe

The country's health ministry confirms the "identification of a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory," while Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office says he is monitoring the situation "very closely."

France detects first Ebola case outside Africa in current outbreak

GENEVA: The Ebola outbreak is spreading into new areas of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and is bigger in scale than hitherto detected, the World Health Organization warned Friday. Much more needs to be done to contain the virus, the WHO said, with isolation bed capacity far below the anticipated need, based on how it is spreading. Since the outbreak was declared on May 15, there have been 676 confirmed Ebola cases, including 136 deaths in the DRC, according to the latest figures from the WHO. There are a further 119 suspected cases, while 32 patients have recovered. No approved vaccines or treatments exist for the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus responsible for the current outbreak, which is centred on Ituri province, with cases also detected in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. &quot;The outbreak continues to expand both in terms of case numbers but also in terms of geographic spread,&quot; said Olivier le Polain, the WHO&#39;s head of epidemiology and analytics for response. Contact tracingSpeaking from Beni in North Kivu, he said that cases were being identified in new health zones within the three affected provinces on an almost daily basis. &quot;That reflects really the scale of this outbreak: a scale that is much bigger than what is being detected, and the high mobility of the population,&quot; he told reporters in Geneva. Le Polain said that while in recent weeks, cases in new areas could be traced back to travel from hotspots, now &quot;we also see local community spread in new areas&quot;. &quot;There are still many blind spots in some areas that are high risk,&quot; he added. Le Polain said contact tracing remained below ideal levels, with just over 70 percent of contacts being appropriately traced. &quot;That&#39;s a huge improvement from where we were about a week or two ago, but it&#39;s still too low to ensure appropriate control,&quot; he said. &quot;Surveillance can scale up, but if you don&#39;t have any space to put your patients safely, it becomes very difficult,&quot; he added. He said that &quot;compared to where the epidemiology is heading&quot;, the current capacity of 250 isolation beds across the affected provinces would not be enough and needed scaling up &quot;quite rapidly&quot;. Expected impact on childrenThe UN children&#39;s agency UNICEF warned of a likely rise in cases amongst children via household transmission in the coming weeks. After returning from Ituri&#39;s capital Bunia, Douglas Noble, UNICEF&#39;s global incident manager for Ebola, said that in the province, more than half of children aged under five are chronically malnourished. &quot;The point is: these are already very vulnerable children,&quot; he told reporters. &quot;As the outbreak evolves we must be prepared for increasing household transmission, which means we may see more children affected in the days ahead,&quot; based on previous Ebola crises. &quot;We are expecting it, and we are taking steps in our interventions... to respond to that,&quot; he told reporters. The outbreak has also spread across the border into Uganda, which has recorded 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths. The African Union&#39;s health agency said Thursday that the situation in Uganda was &quot;under control&quot;. The WHO classifies the Ebola risk as very high within the DRC; high for Uganda; high for countries sharing land borders with the DRC and Uganda; and low elsewhere.

Natural Disaster

The WHO warns the Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo is spreading faster and wider than previously detected, with cases rising sharply, healthcare capacity under strain and new areas reporting community transmission.

Ebola spreading into new areas in northeast DR Congo: WHO

Web Desk

GENEVA: Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic. In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago. In neighboring Uganda, meanwhile, it counted 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths. The total of 471 cases and 84 deaths, based on numbers reported by the DRC and Ugandan governments, marked a hike of 100 cases and 20 deaths from a day earlier. The increase came amid warnings that the outbreak, which the WHO has declared an international public health emergency, could eventually swell to become the largest on record. A top official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that models indicated that without strong public health interventions, the current outbreak risked rivalling the scale of the 2014 West Africa epidemic, which saw over 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths. &quot;That scale is possible,&quot; said Jason Asher, director of CDC&#39;s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, during a press briefing. Ebola, which is spread through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The current outbreak was declared on May 15 in northeastern DR Congo, but the virus is believed to have spread under the radar for some time beforehand. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak. The WHO and the African CDC on Friday launched a $518-million plan to battle the outbreak over the next six months, focusing among other things on boosting surveillance, laboratory testing and infection prevention. &quot;The outbreak is moving fast, and we are still playing catch-up,&quot; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. &quot;We need to stop the outbreak where it is, support countries that are responding today, and ensure that neighboring countries are ready to detect and act quickly if cases appear,&quot; he said. &quot;This is a serious outbreak and its one we know how to stop but we need to move fast and together.&quot;

Doctors Without Border (MSF) personnel stands at the Elikya clinic Ebola treatment center in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on June 5, 2026. (AFP)

In its daily update on the situation, the World Health Organization tallied 452 confirmed cases, including 82 deaths, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was declared three weeks ago.

Nearly 500 confirmed cases in Central Africa Ebola outbreak: WHO

GENEVA: The Ebola outbreak raging in central Africa had a &quot;big head-start,&quot; the World Health Organization chief acknowledged Wednesday, but insisted efforts to rein in the deadly virus were making progress. The outbreak, which was declared on May 15 in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has so far been confirmed to have infected 359 people, including 61 who have died. But the actual numbers could be far higher, with the virus believed to have been spreading under the radar for some time before it was detected. &quot;The outbreak had a big head-start and we&#39;re still behind,&quot; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the UN health agency&#39;s headquarters in Geneva, but insisted that &quot;we&#39;re catching up.&quot; Tedros, who had just returned from a trip to DRC, where he travelled to the outbreak&#39;s epicentre in Ituri province, said he had been &quot;very encouraged by the level of commitment I saw everywhere I went.&quot; But challenges remain, he said, warning that &quot;the virus is ahead of us ... we need to move faster.&quot; It has been clear from the start that the difficulties would be daunting, with the outbreak concentrated in Ituri, where decades of armed conflicts have forced millions of people from their homes and into crowded camps. Ebola patient visited UAE&nbsp;The region&#39;s insecurity, limited testing capacity, lagging contact tracing and mistrust among some of the population are among the challenges facing the response, Tedros said. On top of that, no vaccine or approved treatment exists for Bundibugyo, the rare strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak. Ebola, which is passed on through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The current outbreak &mdash; the 17th to hit the DRC &mdash; has to date seen 344 confirmed Ebola cases across three of the country&#39;s provinces, including 60 deaths, said the WHO. The UN health agency also tallied 116 suspected cases of the disease. Fifteen cases, including one death, have also been reported in neighboring Uganda, including a Congolese resident who had arrived there after first travelling to the United Arab Emirates, Tedros said. &quot;WHO is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel, and to facilitate contact tracing,&quot; he said. Speed up contact tracing&nbsp;The agency has said the risk from the outbreak is &quot;very high&quot; at the national level, &quot;high&quot; at the regional level, and &quot;low&quot; at the global level. Tedros stressed Wednesday that while the WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings in affected countries to prevent the spread of the virus, broader limits were unhelpful. &quot;Blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response,&quot; he warned. &quot;We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.&quot; Reining in the outbreak would instead center on significantly bolstering and speeding up the response on the ground, including by decentralizing laboratory testing in Ebola hotspots, Tedros said. At present, only around 45% of known contacts of Ebola cases have been followed up, the WHO chief said. &quot;To get ahead of the outbreak, we need to get that number up to above 90%.&quot; Abdi Rahman Mahamud, the WHO&#39;s emergency alert and response director, told reporters that so far, more than 1,400 tests had been conducted. But decentralization across five priority locations &mdash; Mongbwalu, Beni, Aru, Nyakunde and Tchomia &mdash; should soon make it possible &quot;to do 1,000 tests a day.&quot;

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15 in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has so far been confirmed to have infected 359 people, including 61 who have died.



Ebola had 'big head-start' but response catching up: WHO

ISLAMABAD: The International Rescue Committee warned Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is likely much larger and more advanced than official figures indicate, as response efforts struggle with delayed detection and dangerously low levels of contact tracing. According to World Health Organization data, Ebola is a rare but severe and often fatal illness in humans, with an average case fatality rate of around 50%, ranging from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. The current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo virus strain, for which no approved vaccine or specific therapeutics currently exist, according to available epidemiological data. The virus spreads through direct contact with broken skin or mucous membranes and bodily fluids of infected or deceased persons, and through indirect contact with contaminated surfaces or materials, according to WHO tracking. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days, with individuals not contagious until symptoms appear, per WHO guidelines. With only 20% of contacts currently being traced, health authorities are struggling to identify and isolate new chains of transmission, according to the IRC. The virus may have been spreading undetected since before March, potentially as long as three months before the first official case was identified, allowing multiple chains of transmission to establish across communities and provinces, the IRC warned. &quot;The true scale of this Ebola outbreak is likely far worse than official figures suggest,&quot; said Rachel Howard, Senior Technical Emergency Health Adviser at the IRC. &quot;When four out of five contacts are not being traced, it becomes incredibly difficult to contain the outbreak or even understand its true scale. We&#39;re especially concerned about the virus spreading to other countries like Burundi or South Sudan.&quot; According to integrated epidemiological data, the total confirmed case numbers are 282 in the DRC and 9 in Uganda, with over 220 suspected cases under investigation. At least 42 confirmed deaths have been reported in the DRC and 1 in Uganda. IRC teams report that shortages of diagnostic cartridges and testing backlogs are slowing case confirmation, further obscuring the true spread of the outbreak. Seven confirmed Ebola patients have reportedly left treatment centers in the DRC. More than six healthcare workers have died, including two doctors, in recent days. People are avoiding health facilities, raising concerns that those affected are staying in their communities rather than seeking treatment. Without urgent funding, the situation could deteriorate rapidly. The outbreak is increasingly resembling the 2018-20 North Kivu Ebola crisis, which infected thousands of people and was complicated by insecurity, population movement, and community resistance. However, unlike in previous outbreaks, when the Ervebo vaccine was deployed, there is currently no approved vaccine for this Ebola strain. The IRC called for urgent international support to scale up contact tracing, surveillance, laboratory testing, treatment capacity, and community engagement efforts. In Uganda, the organization teamed up with the local health ministry on the border to support infection prevention and control activities, including screening people coming across the border.

The current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo virus strain, for which no approved vaccine or specific therapeutics currently exist.

Congo Ebola outbreak likely far larger than official figures suggest: IRC

PARIS: Several non-profit organisations announced Monday they are ramping up efforts to rapidly develop a vaccine for the rare strain of Ebola driving a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.&nbsp;Nearly 250 people are suspected to have died and more than 1,100 infected with the strain in the DRC and neighbouring Uganda, though the true spread of the virus is feared to be much wider.&nbsp;While it marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, it is just the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.&nbsp;The escalating nature of the outbreak has sparked a race to find a vaccine that can be quickly developed, manufactured then tested in humans during clinical trials in the affected region. <figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/f895bb40-57a9-4559-8e87-ef031581f56a-AFP__20260531__B4JA6ZR__v1__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" alt="AFP__20260531__B4JA6ZR__v1__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>A health worker stands in a new Ebola treatment center during a visit of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in Bunia, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 31, 2026. (AFP)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The World Health Organization said on Saturday that its experts had determined &quot;the most promising candidate vaccine&quot; was a single-dose shot using the rVSV platform.&nbsp;The only licensed Ebola vaccine, which targets the more common Zaire strain, uses the same platform.&nbsp;The non-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announced Monday it had reached a deal with the University of Texas Medical Branch to develop the rVSV candidate.&nbsp;The university&#39;s Thomas Geisbert led work on both the Bundibugyo candidate and the licensed Zaire jab. <figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/c4d6c304-5240-49ae-8963-4e07567100f8-AFP__20260526__B43N3DN__v3__MidRes__TopshotUgandaHealthEbola.jpg" alt="AFP__20260526__B43N3DN__v3__MidRes__TopshotUgandaHealthEbola.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>A Uganda Red Cross Society worker in protective gear are sprayed with disinfectant during the evacuation of the body of a suspected Ebola victim in Kampala on May 26, 2026. (AFP)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Geisbert told AFP last month that 2013 research demonstrated his jab provided very strong protection against Bundibugyo in monkeys.&nbsp;However the vaccine &quot;just sat there&quot; for more than a decade because of a lack of interest, in particular from pharmaceutical firms, the virologist added.&nbsp;The WHO estimated it would take seven to nine months before the rVSV vaccine is ready to be tested in humans.&nbsp;&#39;Fast-track&#39;Also on Monday, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced funding to &quot;fast-track&quot; development of three Bundibugyo vaccine candidates, including $3.2 million towards the rVSV jab.&nbsp;WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited the epicentre of the outbreak in the DRC on the weekend, said in a statement the funding was &quot;an important step forward&quot;.&nbsp;Another vaccine candidate receiving CEPI funding was developed on the University of Oxford&#39;s ChAdOx1 platform, which also underpinned AstraZeneca&#39;s Covid vaccine.&nbsp;This viral vector jab -- which will be manufactured by the huge Serum Institute of India -- could become available for clinical trials within two to three months, the WHO said.&nbsp;CEPI also said it had committed $50 million to a vaccine candidate being developed by US pharma giant Moderna which uses the mRNA technology pioneered in its Covid vaccine. <figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/f5fd6e58-55c4-4057-b939-5582c849e0c5-AFP__20260526__B4478GQ__v7__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" alt="AFP__20260526__B4478GQ__v7__MidRes__DrcongoHealthEbola.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>A healthcare worker takes a visitor&#39;s temperature at Rwampara Hospital in Ituri, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 26, 2026. (AFP)</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In a preprint paper published online last week, researchers at France&#39;s INSERM institute called for trials to see if the licenced Zaire vaccine could also help fight Bundibugyo.&nbsp;$50 million pledgeAlso on Monday, the Gavi vaccine alliance announced it would make up to $50 million available for Bundibugyo vaccine efforts.&nbsp;&quot;We need to act now to ensure that, once one or more vaccine candidates are ready, manufacturers are in a position to start producing doses at scale,&quot; Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar said in a statement.&nbsp;IAVI president Mark Feinberg told a press conference on Monday that Gavi&#39;s new commitment could fund the production of roughly 500,000 doses.&nbsp;It also provided a &quot;signal to manufacturers they can make this investment and not carry excessive risk,&quot; he added.&nbsp;Even once doses for a trial are ready, there will be challenges in deploying them in a vast, remote area of the DRC that is already suffering crises including hunger, malaria and conflict.&nbsp;Gaining the trust of communities where vaccines will be trialled will be crucial, the WHO emphasised.&nbsp;And once a trial is finally carried out, there is no guarantee it will demonstrate the vaccine works.&nbsp;&quot;We have reasons to believe that we can generate effective vaccines, but we don&#39;t want to downplay at all that we have to treat them as investigational products,&quot; CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett said last week.&nbsp;There are also several efforts to quickly trial several Bundibugyo treatments, including antivirals called remdesivir and obeldesivir, and the monoclonal antibody MBP134.

A deadly Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda has infected over 1,100 people and killed nearly 250. Global health organizations are accelerating development of vaccines and treatments, with several candidates expected to enter clinical trials within months.

'We need to act now': Race to develop Ebola vaccine heats up

BRAS&Iacute;LIA: Brazilian health authorities are monitoring two patients for possible Ebola infection in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, officials said, sparking further concern of the deadly virus outbreak in central Africa spreading abroad.&nbsp;A 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the outbreak has been concentrated, &quot;exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case&quot; of Ebola, the Sao Paulo state government said in a statement on Saturday.&nbsp;While initial tests did not detect the Ebola virus in the patient, he is being monitored and isolated as a precautionary measure at a specialized infectious disease facility, the statement said.&nbsp;The health department in Rio de Janeiro state meanwhile reported that it had activated safety protocols after a man from Uganda showed &quot;viral symptoms such as cough, chills, and diarrhea.&quot;&nbsp;The Rio city government said in an email to AFP that the patient tested positive for malaria Saturday evening and &quot;the case remains under investigation.&quot;&nbsp;There have been more than 1,000 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including nearly 250 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.&nbsp;Several infections and one death have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.&nbsp;However, the true reach of the outbreak in the DRC, which is thought to have been circulating before it was detected, is likely to be much wider, the World Health Organization has warned.&nbsp;The Sao Paulo government said that despite the suspected case, &quot;the technical assessment indicates that the risk of the disease being introduced into Brazil and South America remains very low.&quot;

Americas

Brazil is monitoring two suspected Ebola cases in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro involving patients from DRC and Uganda. Initial tests were negative or showed malaria, and officials say the risk of outbreak remains very low.

Brazil investigates two possible Ebola cases

GOMA: Fighting between government troops and the Rwanda-backed M23 militia has been raging for days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola epidemic is spreading, security sources and locals said Monday. The mineral-rich region has been scarred by violence from various armed groups for more than three decades. Since 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of territory and fighting has stepped up since the start of 2025. It is also ground zero for an Ebola outbreak which has sparked an international health alert by the World Health Organization. The illness has caused 204 deaths and 867 suspected cases, according to a toll given over the weekend by the DRC&#39;s health ministry. The security and local sources said the recent combat has been taking place in Masisi, an area in North Kivu province, which lies south of the Ituri province, the epicentre of the Ebola epidemic. On Monday, North Kivu&#39;s &nbsp;deputy governor, Didier Lomoyo, said mortar fire had been aimed at the strategic airport at Kisangani, used by Congolese troops, while a police source on the ground told AFP that two drones had been intercepted &quot;without causing any damage.&quot; In recent months, M23 has repeatedly targeted the airport, from which military aircraft belonging to Kinshasa&rsquo;s forces take off. Local sources have reported several air strikes in localities in North Kivu and South Kivu in recent days, but AFP has not been able to confirm the casualty figures from these strikes with independent sources.

Response team members are helped to wear protective suits before burying a person suspected of having died from Ebola in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 25, 2026. (AFP)

Fighting between government troops and Rwanda-backed M23 militia intensifies in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a deadly Ebola epidemic spreads across the region.

Articles tagged with "Ebola Virus"

DR Congo's official Ebola death toll exceeds 400

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France detects first Ebola case outside Africa in current outbreak

Ebola spreading into new areas in northeast DR Congo: WHO

Nearly 500 confirmed cases in Central Africa Ebola outbreak: WHO

Ebola had 'big head-start' but response catching up: WHO

Congo Ebola outbreak likely far larger than official figures suggest: IRC

'We need to act now': Race to develop Ebola vaccine heats up

Brazil investigates two possible Ebola cases

Fighting flares in east DR Congo as Ebola epidemic spreads

DR Congo's official Ebola death toll exceeds 400