Overview
- Health authorities reported on June 2 that the Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak has reached a new health zone, Mambasa, bringing the total affected zones in eastern DRC to 24 and the confirmed caseload to 344 infections with 60 confirmed deaths.
- Contact tracing has collapsed in the hardest-hit province of Ituri, where officials are actively monitoring only about 39.3 percent of identified contacts, leaving large gaps in who is being followed for symptoms and isolation.
- Responders cleared a recent laboratory backlog by testing 76 samples collected on June 1, with almost one-third returning positive results, which indicates ongoing, undetected transmission in the community.
- Security problems and community resistance are undermining control efforts: burial teams have been attacked, authorities reported four confirmed patients escaped isolation, and resistance in mining towns has blocked contact tracing and safe burials.
- There is no licensed vaccine or strain-specific therapy for Bundibugyo; international agencies are fast-tracking candidate treatments and vaccine trials while a preliminary preprint reports limited cross-reactive antibodies from existing licensed vaccines but the finding is not peer reviewed.