The CDC announced Monday that an American tested positive for Ebola this weekend while working in Congo and is being transported to Germany for treatment along with six other Americans who are high-risk contacts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also is enhancing public health screening and traveler monitoring amid a growing Ebola outbreak, and non-U.S. passport holders face entry restrictions if they have been to Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo or South Sudan in the previous 21 days.

Health experts are growing increasingly alarmed about this outbreak, arguing that cases have been spreading undetected in a volatile region as public health authorities are stretched thin amid funding cuts and the ongoing hantavirus outbreak.

Americans, including a family with children, who have been working for a nonprofit in the outbreak area in Congo’s eastern region may have been exposed, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The American who tested positive is a doctor working for a missionary organization, according to an individual familiar with the U.S. Ebola response who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

The doctor met his wife, also a physician, at medical school at Ohio State University before the family went to work in Congo, per a fundraising page on the nonprofit’s website. The couple have three children, the page says.

The National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska has not received a request for Ebola patients, said spokesperson Taylor Wilson, noting it has 20 beds and 18 are occupied by people linked to the outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship.

Although there isn’t another federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S., there are 13 “regional emerging special pathogen treatment center” locations nationwide.

The announcement comes as the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths. Although the United States withdrew from the WHO officially this year, CDC officials have said they have been working with international partners and the health ministries in the affected countries. The agency also said it has been supporting response efforts through CDC country offices in Congo and Uganda to help with contact tracing, border screening, personal protective equipment and disease monitoring.

The U.S. is also coordinating with airlines, international partners and port-of-entry officials to identify and manage travelers who may have been exposed to Ebola virus.

The order highlights that travelers departing from outbreak-affected regions frequently fly through airports in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Nairobi; Doha, Qatar; and Istanbul that are connected to major U.S. gateway airports including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

In the largest Ebola outbreak — which killed more than 11,300 people and infected 28,600 people and was centered in West Africa from 2014 to 2016 — passengers from affected countries underwent temperature checks, answered a health questionnaire and were visually assessed for markers of disease.

The CDC said patients in this recent outbreak have experienced typical Ebola symptoms: fever, headache, vomiting, severe weakness, abdominal pain, nosebleeds and vomiting blood.

Symptoms may begin within two to 21 days after contact; the average is eight to 10 days. (Source: The Washington Post)

Story Date: May 19, 2026