Ebola passes 10,000 cases in the Congo as Wisconsin adds 82 measles cases in a week: Health risk update, Oct. 23–30, 2026

Between October 23 and 30, 2026, official updates from the CDC, the World Health Organization and the FDA carried nine decisions a US household, traveler or clinical team could act on this week. Two of them run out of time almost immediately: an entry rule that starts Tuesday, and a salad kit whose last usable date is today.

The week's signal

CDC's Ebola count crossed two round numbers in the same week. Its October 28 update lists 10,305 confirmed cases and 4,996 confirmed deaths across the five affected countries. 1

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (the Congo) accounts for 10,274 of the cases and 4,992 of the deaths. Kenya has nine cases and two deaths, Nigeria one case, and Uganda 21 cases and three deaths once probable cases are counted. France has one case. 1

On WHO's measurement from October 20, the Congo stood at 9,704 cases and 4,687 deaths. 2

That is 570 more cases and 305 more deaths in the eight days between the two readings.

WHO published nothing new on the outbreak this week. Its Disease Outbreak News index still lists the October 23 item as the newest, and the African regional office's most recent weekly situation report is number 23, with data as of October 19. 3 4

CDC's page was therefore the only running count this week, and its data runs eight days further forward than the newest WHO bulletin.

Kenya produced the clearest good news. Twenty contacts of the country's first case completed 21 days without symptoms and left quarantine on October 26; 98 remain. 5

All nine Kenyan cases belong to one connected group. Every one of them was already in quarantine when diagnosed, and the country has found no spread in the community. 5

Care continues after discharge. More than 2,700 people have been declared cured in this outbreak, and they now need follow-up for joint pain, chronic fatigue, memory trouble and psychological after-effects. 6

A survivor clinic opened in Bunia, Ituri Province, on September 19 and had seen more than 400 survivors by October 27. A second opened in Beni, North Kivu, on October 17. 6

The clinics also test for virus that can persist in semen for months after recovery, which is how a resurgence is caught before it spreads. More than 90% of the survivors they contact attend their follow-up appointments. 6

CDC continues to report no Ebola cases in the United States and calls the risk to the American public low. 1

A man in an orange t-shirt sits in the foreground of a clinic waiting area, with two nurses at a table and several patients on plastic chairs behind him — The waiting area of the survivor clinic in Bunia, Ituri Province, where people discharged from Ebola treatment centers return for general medicine, psychology, nutrition and laboratory tests; a consultation takes about two hours. The Congo's Ministry of Health runs the clinic with WHO support, and a second clinic has operated in Beni since October 17. Photo: WHO Regional Office for Africa, October 27, 2026.

Actions for households, travelers, and clinical teams

Alert	Who should act	What to do now
US entry rules for the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan	Anyone boarding a flight to the United States who has been in the region	Travelers who were in the Congo within 21 days of their flight cannot board a commercial flight to the US, including itineraries that stop there. Arrivals who were only in Uganda or South Sudan must use designated airports for screening. From November 3 at 11:59 pm ET, every passenger boarding a US-bound international flight signs an attestation of no Congo presence in the previous 21 days. 1
Measles in Pennsylvania	Residents and visitors in the 44 affected counties, anyone with incomplete MMR records, and pregnant women	The state reported 1,398 cases, 265 hospitalizations and five deaths on October 28. Infants aged 6 through 11 months in flagged counties can take an early dose and still need both routine doses later. MMR is not given during pregnancy, and pregnancy should be avoided for 28 days after the shot. Call 877-PA-HEALTH (877-724-3258) before going to a clinic. 7
Measles in Wisconsin	Residents of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette and Vernon counties, and of Chippewa, Rock, Marathon, Jackson, Marquette and Richland counties	Wisconsin counted 392 cases on October 30. The four-county southwest outbreak stands at 336 confirmed and 6 probable; Chippewa County has 33; Rock County's 5 probable cases still have no identified source. Check immunity through the Wisconsin Immunization Registry. Measles was last detected in Green County wastewater on October 14. 8
365 Whole Foods Market ashwagandha capsules	Anyone who bought the 120-count bottle at Whole Foods or on Amazon in the past year	Stop taking Standardized + Full Spectrum Blend Ashwagandha Capsules, 120 count, UPC 9948252099, lot 2025-26227, expiration 10/13/2028. Routine sampling of one retail unit found Salmonella; no illnesses reported. The bottles sold from November 24, 2025 through October 20, 2026 in 29 states and the District of Columbia. Discard the product and do not return it to the store; a refund is available at any Whole Foods Market. Questions: (505) 268-9950. 9
Wise Wife ground cinnamon	Households in Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin	Check the spice rack for a 110 g (3.88 oz) clear plastic container with a black screw-top cap: UPC 0688474302754, best before 4/25/2027. A sample tested by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found elevated lead. Lead harms children's developing nervous systems, and the damage can be permanent. Discard it or return it for a refund. Questions: 1-516-437-3782. 10
Haifa cold smoked sprats	Shoppers in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania who bought loose smoked fish	Throw out Cold Smoked Sprats sold loose from bulk cardboard boxes at retail. All lots are covered; about 560 lbs were shipped refrigerated. An FDA inspection found the firm smoking sprats without the controls that stop Clostridium botulinum from growing. Do not taste the fish to judge it — botulism toxin survives looking and smelling normal. Seek care at once for double vision, trouble speaking or swallowing, or difficulty breathing. Questions: 718-523-8899. 11
H-E-B Backyard BBQ Chop Salad Kit	Soy- or almond-allergic households that shop at H-E-B in Texas	Check the refrigerator for the 13.4 oz kit with UPC 041220300457 and best-if-used-by October 30, 2026. Taylor Farms found soy and almonds unlisted. No reactions reported. Return it to the store for a refund. Questions: (855) 455-0098. Any kit still in the fridge today is the one to check. 12
Ultimate Forza male supplement	Anyone who bought the capsules at an independently owned GNC franchise	Stop using Ultimate Forza Multi-Capsule/Box (item 810208, UPC 868592000002) and Single Pack (item 810222, UPC 868592000040). Testing found sildenafil, tadalafil and dapoxetine, none of them on the label. The first two can drop blood pressure to dangerous levels alongside nitrates, which many people with diabetes or heart disease take. The products sold at franchise locations from 2017 through October 1, 2026. Return them to a GNC store for a refund; questions: 1-877-462-4700. 13
Severe strep among people living unsheltered	Shelter staff, outreach workers, and clinicians seeing patients with wounds or skin infections	Group A Streptococcus infections ran 106 times higher among people experiencing homelessness in Missoula County than in the general population, and 87% of those patients had a wound or broken skin when diagnosed. When a patient has a spreading wound, fever or pain out of proportion to the wound, culture it and treat early. 14

How to read this week's counts

The two agencies are not measuring the same eight days. CDC's page carries data to October 28; WHO's newest published figures stop at October 20. Compare each agency against its own earlier report and the trend holds; set one agency's total beside the other's and the difference is mostly calendar. 1 2

Both agencies revise as reports arrive from health zones that are hard to reach, so treat the weekly movement as the shape of the outbreak rather than an exact tally.

The measles series has a sharper version of the same problem. Each week's figure is provisional, and the most recent weeks move the most.

Horizontal bar chart comparing United States measles cases by week of rash onset, with each week shown as reported on October 16 and again on October 30, 2026

The week of October 4 read 130 cases when CDC's table was checked on October 16; it reads 206 today. The week of October 11 read 50 and now reads 185. Only the two newest weeks have no earlier reading. Chart: this channel, from CDC's weekly rash-onset table, read on both dates.

Read that chart before drawing a conclusion from the week of October 25, which shows 35 cases. It is the newest bar and the least complete one. The four weeks before it have all risen as reports landed.

What has not moved is the size of the year. CDC counted 4,852 confirmed cases on October 29, across 43 outbreaks, with 511 hospitalizations and three deaths. 15

Children under 5 make up 812 of those cases and 16% of them were hospitalized; people 20 and older make up 1,996 cases and 14% were. Unvaccinated or unknown status covers 96% of cases. 15

State counts move for their own reasons. Pennsylvania's October 23 release added Crawford County and put the state at 44 counties; the count had stood at 43 a week earlier. 16 County totals also get corrected downward as investigations reclassify cases, so the live dashboard is the figure to trust between releases.

CDC's national death count is explicitly provisional. It reads three while reviews continue, and CDC is still working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists on one death definition, so states count differently in the meantime. 15

Travel health: nothing new, and a rule four days out

No travel health notice was issued or reviewed between October 23 and October 30. The newest item on CDC's list is still the Level 1 notice for Kenya, reviewed October 19. 17

The Ebola notices stand where August left them: Level 4 for Ituri and Nord-Kivu, Level 3 for Haut-Uélé and Tshopo, Level 2 for the rest of the Congo and Uganda, all dated August 4 or August 28. 17

The two yellow fever notices reviewed on October 16 — Ghana's Upper West Region and Colombia — are unchanged, as are global polio from September 23 and global dengue from October 2. 17

The one thing that changes for travelers is the attestation, which takes effect Tuesday, November 3, at 11:59 pm Eastern. It applies to every passenger boarding an international flight to the United States, wherever the flight begins. 1

WHO's position, restated in its October 26 release on Kenya, is that travel restrictions are not advised and that screening at points of entry is the recommended measure. 5

Vaccine, clinical and alert notes

The US routine vaccination schedule is unchanged. CDC's ACIP page still lists no recommendation adopted since August 2025. 18

MMWR's October 29 issue carried two items. The first followed a cluster of group A Streptococcus infections around two homeless shelters in Missoula, Montana, between July 2024 and September 2025. 14

Of 69 cases in the county, 39 occurred among 36 people experiencing homelessness. Thirty-four of those 39 were hospitalized, 15 had invasive disease, and one died. 14

Eighteen of the 39 surfaced only because surveillance was widened to pull housing status from medical records and laboratory reports directly. 14

The second item was a QuickStats page on ADHD diagnoses among children and adolescents. 19

CDC's Health Alert Network added nothing this week. The newest notice in its archive is still the September 10 rabies post-exposure advisory, CDCHAN-00533. 20

State measles picture

Pennsylvania added 38 cases between October 26 and October 28, reaching 1,398 in 44 counties with 265 hospitalizations and five deaths. Four of the state's cases, under 1%, are in vaccinated people. 7

Vaccination is running at roughly twice the usual rate. Providers gave more than 56,000 doses in September against a typical 25,000, and more than 53,000 in the first three weeks of October. 7

Staff at state health centers have given nearly 6,747 doses at 229 pop-up clinics since the outbreak began in late April, out of nearly 10,700 doses given in 2026 at pop-ups and centers combined. 7

Wisconsin's total jumped from 310 to 392 in a week. Most of the increase sits in the four-county southwest outbreak, now at 336 confirmed and 6 probable cases. 8

Chippewa County now has 33 confirmed cases, up five in a week, and the state describes measles as spreading locally there. Two counties that were absent from last week's list now appear: Jackson with two confirmed cases and Marquette with one, both linked to out-of-state travel and unconnected to the southwest outbreak. 8

Rock County's five probable cases remain the state's open question. They are linked to one another, unrelated to the southwest outbreak, and have no identified source. 8

Utah has counted 527 cases in 2026 and none in the past three weeks, as of its October 27 update. 21

Because the risk there is now low, Utah tells parents an early dose for infants under 12 months can wait, and suggests talking to a provider about timing instead. Any infant who does get a dose before 12 months still needs the two routine doses later. 21

Food safety: five recalls and three investigations that moved

The ashwagandha recall is the widest of the five, and the least obvious to check for. One lot sold for nearly a year through Whole Foods stores in 29 states and on Amazon; the Salmonella turned up in routine sampling of a single retail unit. 9

The cinnamon recall reaches back furthest. The affected containers shipped from September 2025 through June 2026, so a jar bought a year ago is still in scope. 10

FDA's investigation table moved in three places. A new Salmonella Javiana investigation, reference 1424, was opened on October 28 with 59 cases and no product identified yet. 22

The Listeria investigation with no product named, reference 1417, rose from 46 cases to 50. 22

The E. coli O157:H7 outbreak tied to chicken wraps, reference 1421, has ended at 50 cases. FDA says the wraps are past shelf life and were pulled from sale before the link was established, so no consumer action remains. 22

Two investigations still carry consumer advice and were not updated this week: raw milk cheese under reference 1419, and sprouts under reference 1411. Both remain open. 22

This week's checklist

Flying to the US in the next month? The attestation requirement starts November 3 at 11:59 pm ET, and anyone who has been in the Congo in the previous 21 days cannot board.
Taking a 365 Whole Foods Market ashwagandha capsule? Check for lot 2025-26227 and stop; the bottles sold for most of the past year.
Check the spice jar for Wise Wife ground cinnamon, UPC 0688474302754, best before 4/25/2027 — a children's exposure risk that builds over weeks.
Bought loose smoked sprats in New Jersey, New York or Pennsylvania? Discard them rather than judging by smell.
In Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, check MMR records now; both states are still adding cases week over week, and Pennsylvania is vaccinating at twice its usual rate.
Work in a shelter or treat wounds in an outreach setting? Culture spreading wounds early — group A strep infections run 106 times higher among people experiencing homelessness.

References