An Ebola outbreak driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus has grown to 534 confirmed cases and 93 deaths across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the World Health Organization reported in its June 8 Disease Outbreak News, putting the overall case-fatality rate at 17.4% as of June 6.
The DRC carries almost the entire burden: 515 confirmed cases and 91 deaths, a 17.7% case-fatality rate, concentrated in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. Uganda has reported 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths among imported cases, plus one probable case who has died. Sixteen confirmed cases have occurred among health and care workers — a marker of strained infection control that has recurred across past Ebola responses.
WHO assessed the risk as very high at the national level in the DRC, high in Uganda and bordering countries, and low at the global level.
No licensed countermeasures
Bundibugyo virus is one of the species that causes Ebola disease, and it is a harder target than the more familiar Zaire strain. WHO notes that no approved vaccines or specific treatments currently exist for Bundibugyo virus disease, leaving supportive care as the mainstay of management. The licensed Ebola vaccine and monoclonal-antibody therapeutics were developed against Zaire ebolavirus; after a May 28 expert consultation, WHO concluded that evidence on cross-protection to other Ebola virus species “remains limited and inconclusive,” and its advisory groups recommended that candidate products be used only within clinical trials.
CDC assessed the risk posed by this ongoing outbreak to the U.S. population during the next 3 months as low. — CDC, MMWR, June 5, 2026
For the United States, CDC reached a measured conclusion. In a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published June 5, the agency rated the risk to the US population over the next three months as low, with no cases reported domestically. As of June 2 — the CDC’s slightly earlier data cutoff — 378 confirmed cases and 63 confirmed deaths had been reported, none in the United States. CDC put the likelihood of importation via an infected traveler from the DRC at very low, based on modeling.
The agency has nonetheless tightened the border. Since May 18, air passengers from the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda have been routed to four US airports — Washington-Dulles, Atlanta, Houston’s Bush Intercontinental and New York’s JFK — for enhanced entry screening, the report said.
The two datasets are not contradictory; the gap reflects different cutoff dates, with the WHO figures four days more current. The trajectory bears watching.