Ebola: what are the symptoms and how does it spread?

https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2026/10/15/ebola-what-are-the-symptoms-and-how-does-it-spread/ Crowds on the streets of Kampala, Uganda on 26 May 2026, during the Ebola outbreak Ebola has been in the news since the World Health Organization's declaration of a public health emergency of international concern on 17 May 2026, for an outbreak affecting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. This blog post outlines what the disease is, how it spreads, and what it means for the UK. What is Ebola? Ebola disease is caused by a group of viruses known as orthoebolaviruses. It affects both humans and animals, and was first identified in 1976 during near-simultaneous outbreaks in Zaire, now the DRC, and Sudan, now South Sudan. Between 1979 and 1994, no human cases were reported. Since then, outbreaks have occurred with increasing frequency, including a large West Africa outbreak between 2014 and 2016, which caused over 28,000 reported cases and saw intense transmission in urban areas for the first time. Several countries, including the UK, reported imported cases linked to that outbreak. Four species of the virus are known to cause disease in humans, alongside a fifth found only in a...