Mobile phone data used to reconstruct the first weeks of the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in a Science study

12 November 2026

Epidemiologists have used anonymised mobile phone data together with test records to reconstruct how the Bundibugyo strain Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo spread in its first weeks, in a study published in the journal Science. Movement of people out of Mongbwalu, Bunia and Rwampara between 24 April and 24 May predicted which health zones would report infections by 1 June. The first case is reported to have had symptoms as early as 25 April, weeks before the outbreak was declared on 15 May, and the first confirmed case was in Ituri province in the north-east, with suspected cases also in North Kivu. A co-author of the study is Pierre Akilimali of the National Institute of Public Health at Kinshasa. The outbreak is the largest of the Bundibugyo strain so far, and there are no licensed vaccines or approved treatments specific to it.