A sign outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on March 18, 2026.
Megan Varner | Reuters
An American citizen has tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday, in connection with a deadly outbreak in Central Africa that the World Health Organization is working hard to contain.
Dr. Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incident manager, told reporters by phone that the person was exposed as part of his work in Congo, developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday. The CDC and State Department are working to transport this individual and six other Americans exposed to Ebola to Germany for treatment, care, and monitoring.
However, Pillai stressed that there are no confirmed cases in the United States related to the outbreak and that the overall risk to Americans and travelers remains low.
Still, the CDC announced Monday that for the next 30 days, it will restrict entry to anyone who does not have a U.S. passport and has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, or Uganda in the past three weeks.
This update comes a day after the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.” Although the outbreak does not meet the criteria for a “pandemic emergency,” the WHO warned that high positivity rates and rising numbers of cases and deaths indicate a “potentially much larger outbreak” than what has been detected and reported.
As of Sunday, more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths had been reported, primarily in Congo but also in neighboring Uganda, according to the CDC.
There is no vaccine or treatment for the specific virus ‘Bundibugyo’ involved in this outbreak. Historically, the virus’ fatality rate has ranged from 25% to 50%, the CDC added.
Symptoms of Ebola can appear suddenly and include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches and sore throat, according to the WHO. These flu-like symptoms may be followed by vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, rash, and kidney or liver dysfunction.
“What’s especially concerning about this outbreak is that this strain of Ebola is not very common and hasn’t really been seen recently in the wild, so we really don’t know if the current Ebola vaccines are effective at preventing disease or preventing transmission,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, director of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California, Davis, said in an interview.
CDC officials told reporters Monday that work is underway to develop a monoclonal antibody therapy as a potential treatment for this particular strain of Ebola. However, it is unclear how long that process will take.
Blumberg said that while there is a possibility that cases may appear in the United States, it is unlikely that the outbreak will escalate into a coronavirus-type pandemic.
The reason for this is that “there is no person-to-person transmission before the onset of symptoms, so there is no risk to people with good symptoms.” Transmission should be “limited,” as patients infected with Ebola become “severely ill” and do not go out in public and infect others.
Global awareness of the outbreak should also facilitate testing of patients who have traveled to infected areas, he added. He said anyone who develops symptoms should be isolated immediately and will likely require treatment at a health facility.
