CDC raises Ebola response to highest Level 1 as DRC outbreak worsens

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has elevated its Ebola response to Level 1, the agency’s highest internal emergency activation. This mobilises the maximum possible staff and resources across the CDC, a step taken only five times before, most recently for the 2014‑2016 West African Ebola epidemic.

The move follows a surge in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) outbreak, now the second‑largest ever recorded in the country and the third‑largest worldwide, with 1,203 confirmed cases and 321 deaths reported across Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. The CDC stresses that the activation is an internal alert, not a public health warning, and that the risk of Ebola spreading to the United States remains low.