France confirms first Ebola case in doctor who had worked in DRC

<p>The World Health Organization declared the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/may/15/ebola-outbreak-drc-africa-deaths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">outbreak on 15 May</a>, and two days later declared a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/17/who-ebola-outbreak-congo-uganda-global-health-emergency" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">public health emergency of international concern</a>. Experts believe the virus was circulating in the DRC undetected for weeks before, however, and that the scale of the outbreak there is likely to be much larger than the confirmed cases suggest.</p>

<p>The humanitarian response has been complicated by aid cuts and conflict in North and South Kivu provinces, to the south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group operates and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ebola" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ebola</a> cases have also been detected.</p>

<p>The outbreak had the largest number of confirmed cases within the first month of any Ebola outbreak, the WHO official Abdirahman Mahamud said on Tuesday.</p>

<p>Mahamud said local resistance to the response in DRC, which had included hospitals and treatment centres being burned down, was waning. “More and more communities are aware of the risk of Ebola and are asking for tools to support and ​protect themselves,” he said.</p>

<p>The current strain of the disease is the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no vaccine or approved treatment.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/75/wr/mm7522e1.htm?s_cid=OS_mm7522e1_w" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Modelling</a> by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested the outbreak could be the biggest on record. The previous largest outbreak was in west Africa from 2014 to 2016, during which more than 28,000 people were infected and more than 11,000 died.</p>

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<p>It is the DRC’s <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ebola/outbreaks/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">17th outbreak</a> of Ebola, which was first detected in the central African country in 1976. Scientists believe it spreads to humans from infected African fruit bats, and is then passed between humans through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person or someone who has died of the disease.</p>

<p>Initial symptoms include fever, exhaustion, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. These may progress to vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, a rash, and impaired kidney and liver function.</p>

<p>A ‌US citizen who was ​treated for ​Ebola in Germany recovered and was discharged earlier this month having tested negative for the virus after 30 May.</p>

<p>The US government wants to build an Ebola quarantine facility for its citizens in Kenya, which has never recorded any Ebola cases. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/23/kenya-minister-orders-halt-us-ebola-facility" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The country’s health minister said on Tuesday</a> that construction of the highly controversial facility would stop, however, after a high court order that authorities had initially disregarded.</p>

<p><em>Reuters contributed to this report</em><br /><br /></p>

Guardian Sport · Jun 24

Guardian Sport · Jun 24

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