Frontline researchers at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences are assisting in mobilising to bolster containment and diagnostic operations in the DRC and Uganda.
Leading African scientists have launched an urgent, cross-border intervention following the World Health Organisation’s declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) over a rising Ebola outbreak in East and Central Africa.
The outbreak, which was officially designated a global health emergency on 17 May 2026, is tearing through regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. Unlike previous high-profile epidemics, this crisis is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the ebolavirus—a variant for which there are currently no licensed vaccines, no approved antiviral treatments, and no reliable rapid diagnostic tests.
In response to the escalating threat, frontline researchers at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in South Africa have rapidly mobilised to bolster containment and diagnostic operations in the affected nations. Professor Jean B. Nachega, Director of SU’s Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI), has been appointed to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Emergency Consultative Group to help shape the continental defense strategy.
