On June 1, Kenyan authorities said they will continue to build a Ebola treatment complex for “everyone” using U.S. funds, Bloomberg reported.
The facility will be built on a U.S. base 125 miles from Kenya’s capital. Health Minister Aden Duale said the center is for “everyone,” not only U.S. nationals. The facility was originally blocked by a Kenyan court on May 29, and has faced criticism from U.S. and foreign experts.
“We urge the administration to immediately halt the implementation of this plan,” 15 leaders and experts from the International Human Rights said in a May 31 letter to President Donald Trump. “The current proposal to deny entry to U.S. citizens potentially exposed to Ebola conflates travel restrictions with medical necessity and disrupts outbreak response. From a medical standpoint, this approach introduces a dramatic increase in risk,” the letter said. Instead, the letter encouraged the administration to bring affected Americans to the U.S. to receive treatment at one of its 13 biocontainment units.
Here is the latest on the Ebola outbreak.
1. As of May 31, there are 282 confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 42 confirmed deaths, according to the CDC. On May 29, the Congo Ministry of Health updated its total suspect case count to remove suspected cases that have been ruled out after investigation and suspected deaths that are pending ongoing investigation. This has brought the total of suspected cases down from 906 reported May 26 to 220. However, more than 1,100 suspected cases are being investigated in Congo and Uganda, Jean Kaseya, PhD, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a report from NBC News.
2. International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian aid, relief and development nongovernmental organization, said that only 20% of contacts are currently being traced in Congo, so Ebola cases are likely higher than reported. It also said that the outbreak could have started before March, almost three months before the first case was identified.
3. Four nurses and a laboratory worker have recovered from Ebola caused by Bundibugyo virus, and more patients are expected to recover if diagnosed early and receive care, the World Health Organization reported. The report comes after more than six healthcare workers have died from Ebola infections, including two physicians.
4. WHO handed over a refurbished 60-bed Ebola treatment center in Bunia to health authorities. WHO is also setting up an annex with up to 42 beds to be ready in coming weeks.
5. WHO advisory groups found several promising candidate treatments and vaccines, and is prioritizing them for clinical trials. The organization is working with Congo and Uganda authorities to implement research trials for these products.
6. Several nations are coming together to provide aid and supplies amid the breakout. The U.S. has committed more than $162 million and mobilized an additional $50 million to help build clinics. The U.N. humanitarian relief coordination agency has allocated $60 million for the response, while WHO has released $3.9 million, South Africa’s government has pledged $2.5 million, Congo’s government has set aside $20 million from its budget, and the European Union and UNICEF are sending more than 100 tons of equipment.
7. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, a man with a suspected case of Ebola tested positive for meningitis, and another patient with a suspected case in Rio de Janeiro tested positive for malaria. These diagnoses do not rule out the possibility of Ebola, NBC News reported. Italy also had a suspected Ebola case from a man who had flown back from Congo with some symptoms, but he had reportedly tested negative.
8. The U.S. is facing criticism for its response to the outbreak. Public health experts and health workers told the Times that a significant barrier to the international response is linked to the U.S. cutting funding to the WHO by $500 million in the 2026-27 budget, shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which played a major role in containing previous outbreaks, and cutting funding to the CDC. The U.S. is also facing pushback after ABC News reported that the Trump administration had planned to send U.S. citizens exposed to Ebola to Kenya for observation and treatment.
9. The current Ebola outbreak could become the deadliest in history without urgent intervention, aid groups told The New York Times.
“Never before has an Ebola outbreak recorded so many cases so soon after its declaration,” Alan Gonzalez, MD, deputy director of operations for Doctors Without Borders, wrote in a May 30 news release. “The reality today is that nobody knows the true scale and severity of this outbreak. New suspected cases are being reported daily, yet hundreds of samples remain untested.”
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