An Ebola outbreak in central Africa, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern, is sparking increasing global alarm.
More than 300 suspected cases and 88 suspected deaths have been reported, primarily in Congo but also in neighboring Uganda.
A person from the U.S. has tested positive for Ebola in connection to the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday.
The person was exposed as part of their work in Congo, developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday, according to Dr. Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incident manager.
In addition to the one symptomatic person, six other Americans are being moved for treatment or observation.
Asked at a White House event Monday if Americans should be concerned about Ebola, President Donald Trump replied, “I’m concerned about everything, but certainly am. I think that, you know, it’s been confined right now to Africa, and but it’s something that has had a breakout.”
At the same event, Heidi Overton, a medical doctor and deputy director in the White House Domestic Policy Council, said that the American who has tested positive is being transferred to Germany.
“That American, as well as six other high-risk contacts, are going to be taken out of that region and taken to Germany, we want to thank our German counterparts,” she said. “That is an internationally recognized location for viral hemorrhagic fever treatments. So we’re very grateful that they would take them. It’s a significantly shorter flight time for Americans to receive treatment there in Germany.”
The WHO says the risk of the outbreak causing a pandemic is extremely low but that it nonetheless poses significant risk to the surrounding region.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Sunday that a “small number of Americans who are directly affected by this outbreak” were being withdrawn from the area.
On Monday, the agency announced that, for the next 30 days, the U.S. will restrict entry into the country for people without U.S. passports who were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan or Uganda in the last three weeks. U.S. embassies in those three countries have paused all visa services temporarily, according to the State Department.
The outbreak has been identified as a rare type of Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus. Spread by bodily fluids, Ebola is highly contagious and often fatal — killing between 30% and 50% of those it infects — and causing symptoms such as fever, rash and vomiting, the WHO said.
Unlike other types of Ebola, Bundibugyo has no approved vaccine or treatment.
The CDC has advised travelers who visited the affected countries recently to seek immediate medical attention if they develop fever, weakness, vomiting, diarrhea or unexplained bleeding.
Health officials and experts are concerned that this new outbreak was detected late.
Most cases are in Congo’s eastern Ituri province but it has since been found some 600 miles away in the capital, Kinshasa, and in Uganda, meaning officials do not have a clear idea of how far it might have spread.
Congo closed its land border with Rwanda on Sunday, the State Department said in a post on X.
“There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time,” the WHO said in a statement Sunday.
It also warned that it will be difficult to fight the virus’ spread in a region that has recently seen conflict between the Congolese government and the rebel group M23, whose captured city of Goma has also confirmed one case, according to its local administration.
Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa CDC, told British broadcaster Sky News on Sunday that he was in “panic mode” due to a lack of medicines and vaccines as deaths rise.
The WHO’s emergency declaration means it is supporting governments and agencies’ attempts to combat the spread. Its regional office for Africa said Sunday on X that a team of 35 experts from the WHO and the Congolese Health Ministry had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, along with 7 tons of emergency medical supplies and equipment.
The U.S. government is helping with “surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, infection prevention and control, and other outbreak containment efforts,” the CDC said Sunday.
Meanwhile, the charity Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medicines Sans Frontiers, said it was “preparing to rapidly scale up our medical response” in the region.
“The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,” Trish Newport, MSF emergency program manager, said in a statement.
“This is a scary one,” wrote Jeremy Konyndyk, who led the Covid-19 response at the now dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development.
Konyndyk, now president of Refugees International, said on X that during the mass Ebola outbreak of 2014-16, the largest in history with 28,000 cases, “USAID and CDC, supported by the US military, led the international response.”
But now “most of the international infrastructure that we relied on in past outbreaks ... has been DOGE-d,” he added, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, which oversaw sweeping cuts to USAID and other agencies.
“USAID is gone and CDC is decimated,” he said.
The State Department said USAID cuts will not hamper the U.S. response.
“It is false to claim that the USAID reform has negatively impacted our ability to respond to Ebola,” a State Department spokesperson said. “In fact, by bringing USAID global health functions under the new GHSD bureau at the State Department, our efforts are more aligned and effective. Funding and support to combat Ebola continue, working with allies and partners, with additional announcements forthcoming.”
State did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the status and number of Americans affected by the outbreak.
The U.S.is working with Congo and Uganda “to rapidly contain the virus,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding that the department was “working to rapidly mobilize support to key implementing partners.”
