The Ebola outbreak in Central Africa was declared a public health emergency of international concern in May, and since then, over 900 suspected cases and 200 deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

With the majority of cases impacting the DRC, this marks the country's 17th Ebola outbreak since the discovery of the virus on the Ebola River in 1976. Most of these outbreaks were caused by the highly lethal Zaire virus, a species of Ebola virus that now has approved treatments and vaccines.