MONGBWALU — The Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak on May 15 in Mongbwalu after genomic sequencing confirmed the presence of the Bundibugyo species of the virus. This declaration followed a cluster of deaths that had occurred in the gold-mining town.

Initial testing for Ebola returned negative results from Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research because scientists had screened for the Zaire and Sudan species of the virus. The first-known suspected Ebola case was a nurse who developed fever and vomiting on April 24, according to the country's health ministry. The nurse died in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, but was buried in Mongbwalu.

In February, mourners traveled from Bunia to Mongbwalu with a damaged coffin. Family members of the deceased burned the old coffin in the Shuni neighborhood of Mongbwalu after their arrival. Joseph Mute, a neighborhood leader in Shuni, said residents of the area began to sicken and die soon after the coffin was burned, leading to rumors that flames from the coffin were spreading the disease. He added that mysterious deaths in Mongbwalu featured the presence of blood in the nose and mouth. Mute stated that more than 50 people had died in the Shuni neighborhood by the time the outbreak was declared.

Four health workers in Mongbwalu died within four days in early May. Serge Ugena of Mongbwalu lost his wife and five family members to Ebola in the Shuni neighborhood. As of June 20, the town of Mongbwalu and its surrounding area accounted for 220 of the 1,003 confirmed Ebola cases in the country, according to the health ministry. Police in Mongbwalu fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse a crowd attempting to seize the coffin of a suspected Ebola victim. Women sift gold-bearing sediment at the Maidede mine in Mongbwalu, an artisanal gold-mining site. The Evangelical Medical Center in Bunia operates an Ebola treatment center.