Ebola scare in Italy ends as tests confirm two aid workers from Uganda have Shigella, not Bundibugyo virus

The initial alarm

Two Italian aid workers, a 31-year-old man from Bulgarograsso and a 33-year-old woman from Lurate Caccivio in the province of Como, were hospitalised at the Sacco Hospital in Milan on 25 May 2026 after returning from a three-month stay in Uganda. They presented with high fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and other symptoms compatible with a haemorrhagic fever, triggering Italy's national Ebola protocol. The hospital, equipped with the highest levels of biocontainment for high-risk infectious diseases, immediately isolated the patients and began testing.

Test results and diagnosis

Virological tests performed at the Sacco Hospital's reference laboratory came back negative for the Ebola virus, specifically the Bundibugyo variant currently circulating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The patients also tested negative for malaria and the main respiratory viruses under surveillance. Lombardy's Welfare Councillor Guido Bertolaso confirmed that both individuals tested positive for Shigella, a common bacterium causing gastrointestinal infection, and that further microbiological and culture tests were underway.

The virological tests carried out at the reference laboratory of the Sacco Hospital in Milan have yielded a negative result.

The wider epidemic context

The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no authorised vaccine or specific treatment, has a case fatality rate between 30% and 50%. The current outbreak was declared on 15 May 2026 in Ituri province, northeastern DRC. The World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the epidemic as "extremely serious and difficult" and noted it is spreading rapidly. The WHO raised the risk level in the DRC from high to very high on 23 May, while keeping the global risk low. Tedros declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 17 May and was scheduled to visit the DRC on 26 May alongside Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.

We are facing an extremely serious and difficult epidemic. It is spreading rapidly.

Response and precautions

Seven people in total, including other members of the aid group and family contacts, were placed under fiduciary home isolation and are being monitored by health authorities. The Italian Ministry of Health stressed that the risk of Ebola in Italy "remains very low" and that the national preparedness and response system for infectious emergencies is fully operational. Coordination is also being strengthened at the European level: the Ministry's Prevention Department participated in a meeting of the European Commission's Health Security Committee on 24 May.

Controversy over media alarm

Bertolaso criticised the mayor of Lurate Caccivio, Serena Arrighi, for statements made before the test results were known, arguing that if correct procedures and timelines had been respected, a media alarm that required considerable resources and operational activity could have been avoided. Fabrizio Pregliasco, director of the specialisation school in hygiene and preventive medicine at the University of Milan, commented that in a globalised world viruses travel faster than people, but that Italy's prevention machinery proved it works.

Anyone who talks about zero risk is telling fairy tales. In a global world, viruses travel by plane faster than people. The difference is made by health systems: early diagnosis, isolation, and serious protocols.