Nearly a month into the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, case numbers keep climbing as officials lag behind the virus in containment efforts.
As of Thursday, June 11, the DRC has logged 676 confirmed cases, 136 fatalities, and 119 suspected infections. Uganda reports 19 confirmed cases and two deaths.
The outbreak, triggered by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebolavirus, already ranks as the third largest Ebola outbreak recorded. However, health officials worry it could escalate significantly, noting it had been quietly circulating for months before the outbreak was officially announced on May 15.
Reuters reported Thursday that investigators from the DRC health ministry are tracing backward to identify the initial case—patient zero—and have pinpointed what might have been an early superspreader event on February 4. They focused on the funeral of a 44-year-old pastor in the remote gold-mining settlement of Mongbwalu.
The pastor reportedly died from a severe abdominal infection, potentially an Ebola manifestation. However, he was never tested for the virus. Over 80 individuals attended his funeral, and many relatives and community members became ill in subsequent days. Within two weeks of the burial, nearly 50 deaths were recorded in the town, with many victims exhibiting symptoms suggestive of Ebola, such as fever, vomiting, and bleeding.
As the outbreak’s full scale remains unclear, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released modeling on potential trajectories. The key insight was that without swift and robust public health measures—including contact tracing and case isolation—the outbreak could match or surpass the largest Ebola epidemic ever documented. That was the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak, which saw over 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.
In one of the CDC modeling’s most severe scenarios, where only 20 percent of Ebola cases are isolated, most simulations projected over 20,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths within just three months.
“Utterly disgusted”
With the US exit from the World Health Organization and the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), American contributions to the response have been weaker and slower than during past outbreaks, undermining the overall effort.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s isolationist approach—featuring travel restrictions and border closures—has heightened tensions in other nations. The administration is planning to bar even US citizens from returning to the country if they have been exposed or infected with the virus. Instead, the US is attempting to establish a makeshift quarantine facility at a military base in Kenya, a nation currently unaffected by the outbreak.
These plans have triggered outrage and violent protests among Kenyans. According to reporting by The New York Times, protesters accuse Kenyan officials of yielding to Trump at the cost of letting a deadly virus into the country, accepting Americans that the US itself refuses to admit.
“We are utterly disgusted by the government’s apparent willingness to trade national biosecurity and the lives of its citizens for foreign aid,” the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said in a statement.
The Times reports that hundreds of people have gathered for protests in Nanyuki, the town nearest the air base. At least three protesters have been shot and killed in clashes with police, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Although a Kenyan court temporarily suspended the quarantine facility from opening, the Trump administration continues to push forward with the plans.