--- title: 2026 Ebola Update Statement date: 2026-06-08T22:52:32Z modified: 2026-07-12T19:32:13Z permalink: "https://www.thesafaripartners.com/2026-ebola-update-statement/" type: post status: publish excerpt: "" wpid: 331782 categories: - East Africa featured_image: /wp-content/uploads/2026/06/ebola-outbreak-map-2026-scaled.jpg --- Latest update: July 12, 2026 The outbreak remains centred in northeastern DRC, and the pace of new cases and deaths has picked up again over the past week. According to the most recent figures from the DRC Ministry of Health, tracked by WHO and CDC, the DRC has recorded 1,792 confirmed cases and 625 confirmed deaths as of July 8, with 764 people now hospitalised in isolation — up from 1,460 cases and 452 deaths at our last update on July 4. Ituri Province remains the epicentre, now accounting for 1,631 cases and 535 deaths across 25 of its 36 health zones. North Kivu has recorded 158 cases and 89 deaths across 11 health zones, and South Kivu 3 cases and 1 death in a single zone. As before, a meaningful share of the increase reflects the continued scale-up of surveillance, testing, and diagnostics across the region, which is bringing previously undetected cases into the official count rather than signalling a sudden change in the underlying trajectory. The strain remains Bundibugyo, historically associated with a lower fatality rate than the Zaire strain seen in most previous outbreaks. A clinical trial of two experimental treatments — the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral remdesivir — began in DRC on July 2 with over 1,200 doses available, the first active study of a treatment option for this strain. Contact tracing continues despite a difficult security environment; WHO’s country representative said on July 8 that while teams are hopeful the outbreak is levelling off, it’s too early to say that with confidence. As before, surveillance has identified a small number of isolated cases further afield within DRC, reached by individuals who had travelled from the Ituri epicentre. Three such cases confirmed at the end of June remain the only confirmed introductions at Kisangani and in the Wamba area, and this week DRC authorities were validating test results on two additional suspected cases in Kisangani — one linked to the same travel chain out of Ituri, one without a clear geographic link yet identified. These remain single, contained introductions into a city that already operates a dedicated Ebola treatment centre, not evidence of community spread, and each has triggered immediate contact tracing. Strong health and border measures remain in place across the region: temperature and symptom screening at major points of entry, active contact tracing, and isolation protocols at designated hospitals. Uganda’s figures are unchanged from our last update and remain a genuine bright spot: twenty confirmed cases, including two deaths, plus one probable case who died, with fifteen imported cases linked directly to the DRC and five secondary cases among contacts and healthcare workers. All remain confined to the Kampala and Wakiso districts within the Kampala Metropolitan Area, and Uganda has documented no community transmission at any point. Uganda has now gone three full weeks without a new case, since June 21. Sixteen people have recovered, and of the 831 contacts identified, 821 have completed their full 21-day monitoring period. Screening at Entebbe and contact tracing in Kampala remain active. Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania have all continued to report zero cases. Two isolated cases have also been confirmed outside the region, in people who had been working in or travelling from the outbreak zone: a US citizen medically evacuated to Germany for treatment in May, and a French doctor who had spent five weeks treating patients in Ituri and was isolated immediately on arrival in Paris on June 24 after self-reporting symptoms. Both were identified and isolated promptly by well-prepared healthcare systems, and neither resulted in onward transmission. If anything, they show the response infrastructure working as intended: identify, isolate, and contain, wherever a traveller happens to be. Geographically, the safari areas across the region sit well clear of the affected zone. Uganda’s gorilla trekking is in the far southwest, at Bwindi and Mgahinga, several hundred kilometres from both the Ituri epicentre and the Kampala cluster. Entry screening, surveillance, and contact tracing are active on both the Ugandan and Rwandan sides of this region, and there is no indication of spread toward the parks. Rwanda has never recorded a confirmed Ebola case in the history of the disease. It managed the 2018 to 2020 eastern DRC outbreak, right on its border, without a single imported case, and its government systems remain strong and vigilant. Rwanda again moved early this time, reinforcing border controls and introducing screening and quarantine measures for arrivals from DRC. Kenya does not share a border with DRC at all, with the full width of Uganda in between. The Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Laikipia, Samburu, and the coast all sit 800 kilometres or more from the affected area. Tanzania is further south again, with no shared border with DRC. The Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire, and Zanzibar are all well over a thousand kilometres from the outbreak zone. CDC continues to place DRC at Level 3, advising travellers to reconsider nonessential travel there, with specific guidance to avoid the Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces. Uganda remains at Level 2, Practice Enhanced Precautions. Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania carry no Ebola-related travel notice. The WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17 and, as it has throughout, continues to advise against any restriction of travel to, or trade with, the DRC or Uganda. In its most recent formal risk assessment, WHO rates the risk within DRC as very high given the outbreak’s continued expansion into new health zones, the risk within Uganda as high given confirmed cross-border spread, and the risk to the rest of the region and globally as low. WHO has also convened its immunisation experts to assess candidate vaccines and treatments for this strain. For Canadian travellers specifically, the Government of Canada currently advises against non-essential travel to Uganda. It also advises against all travel to the affected provinces of DRC. Canada has introduced temporary border measures in effect from May 30 to August 29, 2026. Travellers of any status, including Canadian citizens and permanent residents, who have been in DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within the previous 21 days will be assessed on arrival in Canada. They are required to comply with public health measures, including a period of mandatory quarantine of up to 21 days. Separately, Canada has suspended new immigration documents for residents of DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan until August 28. For clients considering Uganda, the 21-day post-travel quarantine on return is the single most important practical factor to weigh, and we will walk anyone through it before booking. Notably, travel to Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania is not affected by these measures. These border measures are due to lapse August 29; we’re watching for any announcement on renewal and will flag it here if anything changes for clients travelling into that window. For US travellers, the CDC and Department of Homeland Security’s enhanced screening and entry restrictions, first announced May 18, remain in effect. Travellers who have been in DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within the previous 21 days are re-routed to designated airports for public health entry screening — now Washington-Dulles, JFK, Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson, and Houston-Bush. They are given 21-day symptom-monitoring instructions, and certain categories of foreign nationals are temporarily barred from entry. The current 30-day order was renewed on June 21 and is due to expire around July 21; CDC has not yet said whether it will extend it, and we’ll update this page as soon as we know. As with Canada, travel to Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania falls outside these restrictions.