Ambulances are parked outside a hospital in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 16, 2026. Constant Same Bagalwa/AP hide caption toggle caption Constant Same Bagalwa/AP The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday.
Africa's top public health agency has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Friday that 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases had been recorded so far in the remote Ituri province.
An ambulance enters the Bichat Hospital where a woman who tested positive for hantavirus remains in intensive care, in Paris, Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
The push to contain the recent hantavirus outbreak "is not over" yet, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday. Tedros' comments came soon after it was announced that everyone aboard the virus-struck cruise ship MV Hondius had been evacuated from Spain's Canary Islands.
European Union negotiators on Tuesday reached an agreement on rules that aim to bolster the bloc's supply chains for essential medicines and reduce its dependence on drug manufacturers outside the bloc.
So far, three people have died, with several others taken ill, after a hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. Hantavirus is a rare rodent-borne illness that has multiple strains of varying severity. With the ship now docked, passengers are being returned to their countries of residence.
"I have this drive and I want to keep going," says Vicky Stinson, 65, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2024. She's pictured here in a park in Charleston, S.C., on a visit in May 2026.
So far, three people have died, with several others taken ill, after a hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship, MV Hondius. Hantavirus is a rare rodent-borne illness that has multiple strains of varying severity. With the ship now docked, passengers are being returned to their countries of residence.
With memories of the COVID pandemic still fresh in many people's minds, it's understandable that communities are worried about hantavirus spreading internationally. "I know you are worried," wrote Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in a letter to the people of Tenerife , Spain, on May 9, 2026.
The recent outbreak of the rare Andes hantavirus has once again drawn attention to terms that became widely familiar during the COVID‑19 pandemic: endemic, epidemic and pandemic. These concepts are often grouped together or misused in public discourse, but in epidemiology they have precise meanings. Importantly, they describe how a disease spreads — not how dangerous it is. So what do the terms actually mean?
Skip next section IN DEPTH — How is the outbreak being contained? May 11, 2026 IN DEPTH — How is the outbreak being contained?
Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from prison on parole on Monday. In September 2025, the Supreme Court had ordered the 76-year-old telecommunications billionaire to serve one year in prison for a past corruption conviction. Thaksin walked free from Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok around 7:40 a.m. local time (00:40 UCT).