Ebola spreads through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of infected people, living or dead. It is not airborne. Bundibugyo ebolavirus, like Zaire and Sudan, transmits through caregiving, unsafe burials, and clinical contact without PPE.
Ebola is not airborne. Transmission requires direct contact through broken skin or mucous membranes with the blood or body fluids of a symptomatic person, or with the body of someone who has died of the disease.
Bundibugyo ebolavirus spreads through the same routes as other human-pathogenic ebolaviruses: caregiving without PPE, contaminated needles and bedding, and traditional funeral practices that involve washing the body. Past BDBV outbreaks in Uganda and DRC were amplified inside health facilities and at home before isolation began.
Virus can persist in semen, breast milk, and ocular fluid for months after recovery, raising the risk of sexual transmission and late flare-ups.
People are not contagious during the 2 to 21 day incubation period. They become contagious only once symptoms begin, which is why contact tracing and rapid isolation of symptomatic cases are central to breaking BDBV transmission chains.