Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has activated comprehensive health measures in response to an Ebola outbreak affecting the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May. The park’s leadership states that the vast protected forest serves as a natural barrier to disease transmission, with the potential to slow the spread of the virus through the region.
The park has established six health checkpoints positioned within and around its 300-kilometer stretch of protected forest across North Kivu province. Alongside these checkpoints, park officials have deployed 40 paramedics and 80 rangers as part of an initial six-month emergency response. Each checkpoint is equipped with handwashing facilities, temperature screening stations, and isolation centers for suspected cases. The installations allow authorities to monitor movement through the protected area and screen travelers arriving from affected regions. Park leadership reports that two suspected cases have already been identified at the checkpoints and referred to public health authorities.
Virunga’s current efforts build on experience from the DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak, which occurred between 2018 and 2020 and resulted in nearly 2,300 deaths in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. Officials from that response period credited the park with playing a significant role in preventing the virus from spreading to Gama and other southern areas. The present outbreak, the DRC’s 17th, has killed more than 1,400 people according to Congolese health authorities, with Ituri province serving as the epicenter.
Beyond human health concerns, the measures also protect mountain gorillas, an endangered species with fewer than 1,100 individuals remaining across the Greater Virunga Landscape spanning the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. Conservation specialists note that gorillas share over 90 percent of their DNA with humans, making them vulnerable to Ebola and other human diseases. Previous outbreaks in Central Africa have demonstrated mortality rates exceeding 90 percent among gorilla populations, though no mountain gorillas have contracted Ebola in Virunga or elsewhere in the DRC to date. Conservation teams maintain ongoing health monitoring and visitor screening protocols to prevent human-to-animal transmission.
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