More than 200 people are suspected to have died in Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, according to the latest figures published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 29. In total, there have been 132 confirmed cases across the two countries, almost all of which have been in the DRC. However, these are likely even low estimates, as suspected cases in the DRC are reported at 906.
The Bundibugyo strain of the ebolavirus has been identified as the cause of the 2026 outbreaks. This strain has been documented twice before since 1976: once in 2007 when 42 deaths were confirmed and once in 2012, when 13 deaths were confirmed. In both cases, outbreaks occurred in Uganda and the DRC. There is currently no vaccine for the Bundibugyo ebolavirus and the outbreak response has been hampered by ongoing conflict, mass displacement, fragile health systems and international aid cuts in the DRC.
According to the CDC, the Bundibugyo virus is the most recently discovered strain of the Ebola virus (orthoebolavirus), identified in 2007, and causes death in about 30 percent of cases of people who contract it.
The most deadly Ebola outbreak of the past 50 years was in 2014, when 28,715 cases were documented by the CDC, of which 11,372 were fatal. These cases were recorded across multiple countries, including the DRC (69 cases of which 49 were fatal), Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone (28,610 cases across the three countries, of which 11,308 were fatal), Mali (8 cases of which 6 were fatal), Nigeria (20 cases, including 8 deaths), Senegal (1 case, 0 deaths), as well as the United States (4 cases, including 1 fatal), the United Kingdom (1 case, 0 fatal), Italy (1 case, 0 fatal) and Spain (1 case, 0 fatal). The second deadliest year was 2018, when there were 3,524 cases, including 2,320 deaths. These were all recorded in the DRC. In both years, the outbreaks were caused by the Zaire ebolavirus, commonly known as the Ebola virus, which is the deadliest of the strains and without treatment, up to 90 percent of cases are fatal. There is a vaccine for this strain.
The third virus shown on this chart is the Sudan ebolavirus, which causes death in about 50 percent of people who get sick with the disease. The highest number of deaths associated with the Sudan virus outbreaks and recorded by the CDC were in 1976, where 151 deaths were documented across the DRC and Sudan, and the year 2000 when 224 deaths were confirmed in Uganda.
