Today's Signal
Ebola count tops 1,000 suspected cases as Italy reports two travel-linked patients
*DRC Ministry of Health figures show case counts roughly doubling in five days; two suspected cases hospitalised in Milan after travel from Uganda.*
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported on May 26 that the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak now spans the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda with sharply rising counts. Per the DRC Ministry of Health update of May 25, the country has recorded 105 confirmed cases and 10 deaths, alongside 906 suspected cases with 223 deaths, across Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces. Uganda has reported seven confirmed cases, including one death, several linked to travel from DRC.
On May 25, two suspected cases of Ebola disease were reported in Italy after the patients travelled from Uganda to Lombardy. Both individuals developed symptoms consistent with haemorrhagic fever and were hospitalised in isolation in Milan.
For Caribbean and African diaspora travellers, the practical signal is screening, not panic. Bundibugyo has no licensed vaccine. WHO declared the Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17. Caribbean ministries of health are now nine days into coordinated screening posture; the European travel-linked cases mark the first time the outbreak has produced suspected cases on a continent that hosts large diaspora populations.
Source: ECDC outbreak update, May 26, 2026; DRC Ministry of Health (via WHO/ECDC), May 25, 2026.