Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield warned that the Ebola outbreak could potentially become “a very significant pandemic.”
The virologist, who spearheaded the agency during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Wednesday that he suspects that outbreak will be “very disruptive,” adding it’s “moving very rapidly.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are battling the spread of the rare Ebola strain, Bundibugyo, with 575 suspected cases and 148 suspected deaths already reported, according to the CDC.
But Redfield, 74, suspects the outbreak is “gonna become a very significant pandemic, probably going to leak into Tanzania, leak into Southern Sudan, maybe leak into Rwanda.”
Redfield, who presided over three Ebola outbreaks, all of which were in the DRC during his stint as CDC chief, was surprised by how late the outbreak was identified.
“Normally we recognize them when we have five, ten cases, you know, at most,” he said. “This one really wasn’t picked up until there was over 100 cases. As you said, now there’s over 500 cases. There’s close to 150 deaths already, and it’s moving very rapidly.”
The London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis has estimated the true number of cases could be more than 1,000.
“The true magnitude remains uncertain,” it said
The infection marks the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC since 1976 – with the most recent ending in December 2025, according to the CDC.
There is no absolute cure for Bundibugyo and World Health Organization special adviser Dr. Vasee Moorthy warned it could take six to nine months for a vaccine to become available.
But Redfield spoke about an “experimental vaccine that’s been in trials.”
Despite the virus spreading in pockets of Congo, schools and churches are open – with only some people wearing masks.
At one hospital in Ituri, Ebola patients were placed on the same ward with those suffering from other illnesses.
A Doctors Without Borders team identified suspected cases over the weekend at Bunia’s Salama hospital but found no available isolation ward in the area, said Trish Newport, an emergency program manager.
“Every health facility they called said, ‘We’re full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space.’ This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” she said on social media.
Dr. Richard Lokudu, a hospital director, said, “We hope for the proper triage and isolation facilities to be installed today, and if that doesn’t happen, we will be completely overwhelmed,” noting patients are “scattered” throughout the building.
There is a lack of handwashing stations and people are continuing with their “normal lives,” Chérubin Kuku Ndilawa, a civil society leader, said.
American native Peter Stafford, who was working as a medical missionary in the DRC, has tested positive for the virus and is being treated in Berlin, Germany.
“Before I was evacuated, I was really concerned I wasn’t going to make it, and now I’m cautiously optimistic,” he told the Christian missions organization, Serge.
Scott Myhre, Serge’s Area Director for East and Central Africa, said Thursday Stafford was “critically ill but not acutely deteriorating.”
The CDC says the risk to Americans remains low but precautions are still being taken, however.
An Air France flight bound for Detroit, Michigan, was diverted to Montreal, Canada, Wednesday amid fears over one passenger’s exposure to the virus.
US officials stopped the flight from entering the country after it was revealed a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo was allowed to board “in error,” US Customs and Border Protection told CBS News.
“Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus, the passenger should not have boarded the plane,” a CBP spokesperson told the outlet. “CBP took decisive action and prohibited the flight carrying that traveler from landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and instead, diverted to Montreal, Canada.”
The CDC and the Department of Homeland Security on Monday implemented heightened measures, including enhanced travel screening, restricted entry and public health measures to prevent Ebola from entering the country.
Non-US passport holders who have been in Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days are banned from entering the country.
The Ebola outbreak has forced the Congo soccer team to switch up its plans ahead of flying to Houston where it will be based for this year’s World Cup.
The team has been forced to ax a send-off ceremony with the country’s head of state, Felix Tshisekedi, and will train in Belgium.
With Post wires.
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