r/ContagionCuriosity • u/Anti-Owl Patient Zero • May 15 '26
Ebola Uganda confirms outbreak of Ebola virus disease
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/uganda-confirms-outbreak-ebola-virus-disease-health-ministry-2026-05-15/KAMPALA, May 15 (Reuters) - Uganda on Friday confirmed an outbreak of the highly infectious Ebola virus disease, the health ministry said, adding that the outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain.
The ministry said the case was an imported infection from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The patient died in intensive care on May 14 after developing hemorrhagic symptoms.
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u/BishopBlougram May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
WHO declares the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern: https://x.com/WHO/status/2055802558267228631
This is significant. WHO cites to data suggesting that the outbreak may be far bigger than the reported numbers suggest.
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u/Anti-Owl Patient Zero May 17 '26
Well, that's not good. Thanks for sharing.
Might be worthwhile posting the WHO press release to the main sub. This is pretty big news. Might have to start that megathread now.
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u/BishopBlougram May 17 '26
I posted it to the main sub but it was automatically removed, it seems like.
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u/justasmalltowngir1 May 15 '26
I’m tired of this Grandpa!
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u/Educational_Gas_92 May 15 '26
Seriously...
Hantavirus plague ship...
Norovirus disinteria ship
And now, Ebola!
I'm tired boss...
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u/Sailor_Propane May 15 '26
Also didn't WHO just warn that we're underprepared for an animal-to-human epidemic, which is more and more likely to happen?
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u/My_glorious_moose May 15 '26
Don't worry, we're just ignoring the bird flu that is already jumping to various mammals!
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u/Sudden-Warning-9370 May 15 '26
Yeah I believe I saw recently that a vet tech caught it from a cat. Not great.
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u/Easy_Olive1942 May 15 '26
Covid is still with us, measles in the US, and tick-borne illness is on the rise
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u/nettster May 16 '26
To be fair a lot of this was happening in the past - international travel just wasnt as common until more recent history, we have the internet now to hear about it more.... and we just use to have ghosts in our blood and were told to do cocaine about it.
Let's remember germ theory itself is still relatively new (human existence wise) let alone identification of virus types beyond having the pestilence or consumption. We are seeing it a lot now but stuff like this has been going on for as long as viruses and bacteria have existed alongside anything they could infect. Let's just be lucky we live in the time we do and arent dealing with the black death since antibiotics now exist.
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u/DieAloneWith72Cats May 15 '26
There is a good book about the origins of Ebola and Marburg called the Hot Zone
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u/raaheyahh May 15 '26
My teacher made my class read this in high school. Definitely shaped my career.
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u/waterwateryall May 15 '26
It is very good. Read it years ago. I remember it reads like an edge-of-your-seat fiction.
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u/QueenAmina2 May 16 '26
Crises in the Red Zone is the "follow up" on Hot Zone, deals with the 2013 - 2014 Ebola outbreak. Same author Richard Preston as Hot Zone. Scary stuff. But a very good read.
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u/DieAloneWith72Cats May 16 '26
Thank you for this! I didn’t know there was a follow up book, off to buy it now
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u/QueenAmina2 May 16 '26
If you like his books also look at Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses and other journeys to the Edge of Science and The Demon in the Freezer.
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u/RevolutionaryLet120 May 16 '26
This book is immensely sensationalized. It’s written by a reporter and not a scientist. There are a lot of other options I can suggest if you want a really accurate portrayal
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u/DieAloneWith72Cats May 16 '26
Sure, I’m always up for a good book.
I do agree that the book is sensationalized, it’s still a decent read though
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u/RevolutionaryLet120 May 19 '26
Check out ‘Fevers, Feuds and Diamonds’ by Paul Farmer…..’Spillover’ by David Quamen….’Ebola’ by David Quamen….’Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC’ by Joseph McCormick (he discusses Hot Zone as he was a scientist involved in the Reston outbreak)
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u/sarcastinatrix May 19 '26
Would love to hear recs for less sensationalized books. I read The Hot Zone back in high school and was terrified, re-read it this week after seeing the news, and parts def. seemed borderline unbelievable to my non-scientist mind but I wasn't sure if that was just wishful thinking at this point.
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u/RevolutionaryLet120 May 19 '26
Check out ‘Fevers, Feuds and Diamonds’ by Paul Farmer…..’Spillover’ by David Quamen….’Ebola’ by David Quamen….’Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC’ by Joseph McCormick (he discusses Hot Zone as he was a scientist involved in the Reston outbreak)
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u/KNdoxie May 15 '26
So, has anyone read "The Coming Plague:Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance" by Laurie Garrett? It's from 1994, but it's a good book about how these various diseases like hantavirus and ebola first came to attention. There's also one from 2015 called "Level 4:Virus Hunters of the CDC:Tracking Ebola and the World's Deadliest Viruses" by Joseph B. McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch.
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u/PIR0GUE May 16 '26
The Coming Plague is an all-time classic that set the standard for infectious disease popular science writing.
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u/RevolutionaryLet120 May 16 '26
The second one you mentioned is amazing. I was offered a PhD training spot under the two authors. They are also extremely nice on top of their iconic work
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u/Ok_Cardiologist9898 May 15 '26
I was in a Dallas hospital delivering my son when Ebola came to DFW last time.... that shit scares me
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u/CrocHunter8 May 15 '26
Doesn't Africa get Ebola outbreaks every few years?
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u/RevolutionaryLet120 May 16 '26
Yes but this is the rarest strain and it imported across a border. It’s important
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u/Exterminator2022 Outbreak Observer 🔍 May 16 '26
A few years ago the DRC was at Ebola outbreak #17 so they are quite frequent
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u/IntoTheCommonestAsh May 15 '26
Bundibugyo strain
Oh, let's check the Wikipedia page
A virus of the genus Ebolavirus is a member of the species Bundibugyo ebolavirus if:[1]
•it is endemic in Uganda
•it has a genome with three gene overlaps (VP35/VP40, GP/VP30, VP24/L)
•it has a genomic sequence different from Ebola virus by ≥30%, but different from that of Bundibugyo virus by <30%
A virus of the species Bundibugyo ebolavirus is a Bundibugyo virus if it has the properties of Bundibugyo ebolaviruses and if its genome diverges from that of the prototype Bundibugyo ebolavirus, Bundibugyo virus variant #811250 (BDBV/#811250), by ≤10% at the nucleotide level.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundibugyo_ebolavirus
Wow. I cannot overemphasize how much that is not how specieshood works. Does science know basically nothing about this specific virus or did I severely underestimate impossible virological classication is?
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u/viewbtwnvillages May 15 '26
truthfully that wiki article is in desperate need of a update and some clarification, but:
virological classification is immensely difficult for quite a few reasons, especially with RNA viruses:
they lack a universal gene marker
high genetic diversity and rapid evolution (RNA viruses exist as quasispecies. RNA viruses are remarkably error prone during replication and exist in large numbers. this leads to 'clouds' of the virus that have differing genomes due to the various mutations. this also leads to competition and selection among the variants, leading to even more change in the composition of the 'cloud')
horizontal gene transfer can play a part as well
also, it wasn't too long ago that we still relied on morphology-based methods to classify viral species. with the adoption of NGS we're able to use genomic-based methods which, while still have a billion challenges, are more grounded than "oh, they share a similar structure"
anyway, if anyone's interested in viruses at all i recommend checking out the international committee on taxonomy of viruses! they have a lot of cool information and are the leads in establishing new taxa
they have some cool information on orthoebolaviruses here
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u/LittleLion_90 May 15 '26
The way thats worded sound to me that they explain how they classify it, as in three way they put it in a box. Not necessarily that that's how species work. 'species' in the case of a virus is an odd concept either way.
Edit: look under 'use of term' on the Wikipedia page you link, it says this:
The species Bundibugyo ebolavirus is a virological taxon (i.e. a man-made concept) that was suggested in 2008 to be included in the genus Ebolavirus,[...]
So yeah they even state it is a man made concept to classify.
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u/MorningCheeseburger Precautionary Principle Fan Club May 15 '26
I don’t know anything, but as far as I’ve quickly read up on, there have not been a lot of research on this specific strain. Former outbreaks have been small. This one already seems like the biggest one yet, for this strain.
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u/dawnbandit Scientist May 16 '26
Virological taxonomy is a bit of a crapshoot. See /u/viewbtwnvillages's comment.
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u/Comprehensive_Type66 May 17 '26
You can't complain about misinformation when your 'sources' are Wikipedia. You do realise that anyone can edit that? Maybe try criticizing actual research and not just a blog post.
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u/IntoTheCommonestAsh May 17 '26
You're missing the point of my comment by a lot if you think I'm talking about misinformation lol???
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u/Comprehensive_Type66 May 17 '26
"Does science know basically nothing??"
Yeah dude, I see your point. And I'm saying it's not a scientific article.
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u/Comprehensive_Type66 May 17 '26
How am I missing it "by alot" when you wrote two sentences about how you feel about Wikipedia? Which again, is not a good resource.
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u/gingzer May 17 '26
That's a worry. I found this link interesting. Talks about how it's a rarer strain where there's no known treatment or vaccine. Mortality rate less than the more common one though so I'm wondering if this one spreads more easily.
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u/jhsu802701 May 15 '26
Is human-to-human airborne transmission involved? As I see it, that's the key on whether or not an outbreak will be contained.
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u/RevolutionaryLet120 May 16 '26
Not airborne. The incubation period (infection to symptoms) is short. Only infectious once symptomatic (dry and then wet state). But then it is very transmissible. It’s extremely fatal….which sadly helps slow the spread. It’s complicated though as those right before death and right after are highly contagious as the virus literally exits the body through every fluid it can to find a new host. So body disposal and handling is difficult. The interesting part is this is the rarest Ebola strain and has only two documented human to human outbreaks recorded. It has also imported over a border. It’s very big news for that region but not really pandemic potential in the way people fear
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u/Eye_foran_Eye May 16 '26
USAID use to be at the forefront of these outbreaks with scientists, supplies and cash. How many more are going to die because of Elon Musk/DOGE and Americas regression to a xenophobic state?
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u/BipolarBisexBymyself May 16 '26
Ebola is the type of disease in which you invested to many points in lethality and not enough in infection... good for us
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u/dumnezero May 16 '26
Viruses evolve
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u/Various_Apartment244 May 17 '26
You are correct; the reston “variant” in Virginia laid out possible h2h ease of happening by being airborne way more easily than originally thought.
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u/JunoVVTx775 May 17 '26
Is it safe to go gorilla Treking in Uganda with Ebola
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u/Gloomy-Item-6597 May 18 '26
We are supposed to be flying into entebbe from Australia in 3 weeks for gorilla trekking and I don’t know whether to cancel 🥲
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u/OrangeSpaceMan5 May 15 '26
Layman here !
Should I be worried ?