The U.S. government has issued an emergency order blocking entry to certain travelers arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, and South Sudan due to a spreading outbreak of the rare and deadly Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.
Signed on May 22, 2026, by Admiral Brian Christine, MD, the Assistant Secretary for Health, the emergency mandate suspends the entry of “covered aliens” who have been in any of the three African nations within the last 21 days, regardless of their original country of origin. The strict travel ban takes effect immediately and will remain in place for 30 days while health officials scramble to assess the threat and build a containment strategy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) triggered the drastic measure under Sections 362 and 365 of the Public Health Service Act. Federal officials stated that the dynamic nature of international flight networks makes it highly probable that infected individuals could land in major U.S. metropolitan hubs before showing symptoms, creating a severe public health hazard.
According to the official document, the ongoing outbreak is centered in eastern DRC’s Ituri Province, where “hundreds of suspected cases and dozens of deaths have been reported.” The crisis has already crossed borders, with Uganda confirming imported cases linked to travel from the DRC, including one specific case detected in the capital city of Kampala. While South Sudan has not reported confirmed cases yet, the CDC classified it as a high-risk zone because of its porous borders, high population mobility, and weak healthcare infrastructure.
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The Bundibugyo virus causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever, resulting in symptoms such as fever, weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, and potentially fatal internal bleeding and organ failure. It spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids. Compounding the urgency for U.S. health officials is the fact that there are currently no widely approved vaccines or specific antiviral treatments available for this particular strain of Ebola.
Compounding the screening challenge is the virus’s 21-day incubation period. Travelers can contract the virus in Central or East Africa and board multi-leg flights through major international transit hubs like Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Doha, Dubai, or Istanbul. Because individuals do not transmit the virus until symptoms appear, exposed travelers can easily pass through initial airport checks and arrive at major U.S. gateways—such as New York (JFK), Washington (IAD), Atlanta (ATL), Chicago (ORD), and Los Angeles (LAX)—while perfectly asymptomatic.
The CDC stated that the temporary ban is intended to drastically lower the volume of high-risk arrivals, allowing state and local health departments to focus their finite contact-tracing and quarantine resources entirely on returning U.S. citizens and legal residents.
The restriction does not apply to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or members of the U.S. Armed Forces and overseas government personnel, provided their departments guarantee strict quarantine protocols. Exceptions can also be made on a case-by-case basis by customs supervisors for humanitarian, law enforcement, or public safety reasons. Noncitizens entering via specific, Department of Homeland Security-approved processes with built-in CDC mitigation measures are also exempt.
Because the CDC lacks the field personnel to enforce the border restrictions directly, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stepped in to manage operational enforcement at all U.S. ports of entry.
While the emergency order goes into effect immediately without the standard prior notice-and-comment period, the Department of Health and Human Services has opened a simultaneous 30-day public comment window to gather input while the government conducts its comprehensive public health risk assessment.
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