US boots-on-the-ground help in major disease outbreaks used to be a given. Not this time, say global health experts watching Ebola spread across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and into Uganda's capital. The Bundibugyo strain, with no vaccine or treatment, is thought to have been spreading for weeks, if not months. Suspected cases nearly doubled in three days this week, reaching about 600, with 139 dead as of Wednesday. As the Washington Post reports, US foreign aid to Congo dropped from $1.4 billion in 2024 to $430 million in 2025, and with just $21 million set aside for fiscal year 2026, frontline health agencies are "dangerously under-resourced."
Former US and African officials argue the crisis was allowed to grow in the dark after the shutdown of USAID's global health arm and deep staffing cuts at the CDC, which once funded surveillance networks, provided protective gear, and ran the logistics that got lab samples where they needed to be. Health workers have been treating patients with little if any protective gear, which USAID would've previously ensured was delivered within hours, a former official tells the New York Times. Meanwhile, infections have spread hundreds of miles from the outbreak center, including to a Congolese city of at least a million people on the border with Rwanda.
American officials reject the idea that USAID reforms have had negative impacts, with the State Department announcing $23 million in new aid and funding "in the nine figures" for treatment clinics, per the Times. It has also blamed the World Health Organization for detection delays. But the WHO says it serves to support national responses, not replace them, and with key US posts vacant, many on the ground say it is Washington that is now playing catch-up.
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