Health workers and local volunteers carry disinfectant containers and sanitation equipment outside the General Referral Hospital during the Ebola outbreak response in Mongbwalu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 21, 2026. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern,” as the death toll and number of confirmed cases continue to rise. The current epidemic is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, one of several Orthoebolaviruses that can cause Ebola disease, and for which there are no approved vaccines. The highest number of cases have been reported in Congo’s eastern Ituri province, bordering Uganda. Global health officials have expressed grave concern over the capacity to contain the outbreak in a region already facing a humanitarian crisis, with highly mobile populations displaced by conflict and economic factors. Photo by Michel Lunanga/Getty Images
A U.S. citizen has Ebola, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated on July 10.
“CDC is aware of a U.S. citizen working for a humanitarian organization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who has tested positive for Bundibugyo virus, a type of Ebola,” the public health agency said in a statement.
“CDC is working with the patient’s employing organization, other U.S. federal agencies, public health authorities, and partners in DRC to help prevent further transmission by supporting contact tracing and performing risk assessments to identify high-risk contacts.”
Details such as the name of the humanitarian organization for which the person works, the person’s condition, and whether they will remain in Congo have not been disclosed.
The CDC and the U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for more information.
The outbreak of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus was detected in May and believed to have started weeks or months earlier. The number of cases in Congo reached 1,830, with 648 deaths, authorities in the central African country said on July 10.
The outbreak recently spread to two new provinces, Congolese officials said this week.
Twenty confirmed cases and two confirmed deaths have been recorded in Uganda, which shares a border with Congo.
The first Ebola case confirmed outside of Africa from the outbreak was recorded in France in a humanitarian worker in June, according to French authorities. The doctor, who works for the Alliance for International Medical Action, was placed in isolation.
An American doctor, Dr. Peter Stafford, working for the Christian nonprofit Serge earlier in the outbreak, tested positive and suffered symptoms. He was flown to Germany for treatment and has since recovered.
Stafford’s family members and another doctor working for Serge were exposed and flown to Europe for monitoring but never tested positive.
U.S. authorities had a plan to develop a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to Ebola during the outbreak but shelved that plan after a Kenyan court ordered officials to stop construction of the center.
The United States has multiple quarantine and isolation facilities for infectious diseases, two of which were utilized this year for people flown from a cruise ship on which a hantavirus outbreak occurred.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting CDC director, said in June that any Americans who contract Ebola could be transported to the United States.
“We’re not ruling out moving people out to the United States if we believe that case requires more intensive management,” he said at the time.
