The deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not likely to end soon, but there’s no reason for Canadians to panic, say people who have worked in the region.
The UN says it has recorded 148 suspected deaths and nearly 600 suspected cases, with two cases including one death in neighbouring Uganda. But the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said the outbreak is almost certainly much larger than the current count.
WHO says that while the risk of the outbreak spreading globally is low, the regional risk is high, with the Ituri Province at the centre of the outbreak bordering Uganda and South Sudan.
Ebola outbreaks are not particularly uncommon — this is the 17th outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.) since 1976, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent outbreak ended in December 2025.
But there are a few factors that make this one especially concerning, says Kerry Bowman, a University of Toronto bioethicist who has worked in the D.R.C.
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When the sickness began to spread, people with Ebola-like symptoms were tested for the most common strain, Zaire, and the tests came back negative. It was only later discovered that it was the rare Bundibugyo strain that was spreading.
“A lot of time was lost,” Bowman said.
WHO has said the scale of the outbreak suggests it was undetected for weeks as it continued to spread. Officials say they have not yet found “patient zero.”
A vaccine was developed for the Zaire strain in 2014, but the Bundibugyo strain does not have a vaccine or treatments, limiting options to stop the spread.
Military conflict in the region is also making the disease hard to contain.
There are more than 920,000 internally displaced people in Ituri Province alone, according to the UN Many are living in displaced people’s camps, which Bowman says are “just a nightmare in terms of contagion.” Parts of the D.R.C. are currently held by rebel forces, and Bowman says Ebola cases have been found in rebel-held territories.
“This one is really different,” he said. “Most predictions are this is only the tip of the iceberg, and it’s going to be a very rough ride.”
He suspects the outbreak will last through the summer, but says a clearer picture will emerge within the next week as more health-care professionals move in to help with the response.
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In past outbreaks, WHO said this strain has had a death rate of 30 to 50 per cent.
Experts say the region’s already weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, and health workers and aid groups have said they are in dire need of more supplies and staff.
Halifax-based Chiran Livera, who has been part of aid relief in five of the D.R.C.’s Ebola outbreaks and is currently operations lead with the Canadian Red Cross, told The Canadian Press that a number of factors have created “the perfect storm” for an outbreak.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through contact with bodily fluids, especially vomit, blood, feces or semen, which is a key reason why experts don’t believe it has the same global super-spreading potential as airborne illnesses like COVID-19.
“Almost no one is suggesting this is going to be a global pandemic the way COVID was,” Bowman said. “But, having said that, we need to take every possible precaution.”
Kent Brantly, an Indiana doctor who contracted Ebola in 2014 while treating patients in Liberia, says his heart “felt incredibly heavy” when he heard about the current outbreak.
He says he sees a lot of similarities with the 2014 outbreak in West Africa — which resulted in 11,325 recorded deaths across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to WHO — because it’s happening in a tri-border region with a “very mobile population,” in a place that “has suffered greatly from conflict and unrest.”
Brantly hopes to see countries around the world come together to proactively assist the African CDC and the affected countries, and suggests giving to organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the group he works for, Christian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse.
Brantly told CBC News there can be “a lot of sensationalization and fear-mongering” at the beginning of an outbreak, and called for a “calm, measured, compassionate” response.
“I think the average Canadian, the average American, has nothing to be afraid of with this outbreak,” Brantly said.
“What we should be concerned about is the well-being of our neighbours in East Africa and the ways that people can help.”
The U.S. government has placed restrictions on any travellers who have visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days, barring foreign visitors among them from entering the U.S. and requiring U.S. citizens and permanent residents to be diverted to Washington’s Dulles International Airport for screening.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has said it is not implementing a travel ban or actively testing travellers, though Ontario’s health ministry said a resident who recently travelled to East Africa is being tested for Ebola “out of an abundance of caution.”
The federal government issued a level two travel notice for the D.R.C. on Thursday, indicating an increased risk to some travellers and reminding them to practise enhanced health precautions.
