The US government has resorted to a 1944 public health law — Title 42, previously used only during the coronavirus pandemic — to restrict for 30 days the entry of foreigners who have visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, and South Sudan within the past three weeks, in response to the Ebola outbreak declared last week in Congolese territory.
The US State Department said the measure prohibits the entry of travelers who have been in those countries within the past 21 days. Washington says it is coordinating a “comprehensive response” to the outbreak, which has already infected one American citizen, who was evacuated to Germany for medical treatment.
“By working to contain the outbreak before it reaches US soil, the United States is protecting the health of Americans both at home and abroad,” the State Department said, adding that since May 15 coordination groups and incident management teams have been active at US embassies in those countries.
The response plan includes mobilizing $13 million (about €11.2 million) in foreign aid for “immediate response efforts.” The department also signaled that it is preparing to announce additional bilateral funding for outbreak response and humanitarian aid, while gathering more information on the scale of the problem.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, raised on Tuesday the number of suspected Ebola cases to more than 500 and suspected deaths to 130 caused by the outbreak in northeastern DRC. At least one death has been confirmed in Uganda. On Sunday, the WHO declared a “public health emergency of international concern.”
Tedros said during the 79th World Health Assembly that “so far 30 cases have been confirmed in the Congolese province of Ituri.” In addition, two cases were confirmed by Uganda in its capital, Kampala, both originating from the DRC, and the American citizen was evacuated to Germany.
The DRC, which in December 2025 declared the end of the last Ebola outbreak in the country (in the Kasai region), is considered the nation with the most experience in managing the virus, having faced more than a dozen outbreaks since Ebola was identified in 1976, in a dual outbreak that had one of its epicenters in the Congolese locality of Yambuku, on the banks of the Ebola River, which gave the disease its name.