US Aid Cuts May Have Delayed Ebola Detection, Experts Warn
A devastating Ebola outbreak sweeping across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda may have been detected weeks earlier if U.S. foreign aid programs had not been dismantled, health experts say. The outbreak — caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain — was officially declared on May 15, 2026, but by the time it was identified, the virus had already infected hundreds and killed at least 139 people across the region, according to NPR.
The Outbreak
The World Health Organization declared the epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on May 17, warning that the true scale of the outbreak remains unknown. The virus — Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BVD) — is the rarest of the three known Ebola strains and has no approved vaccine or treatment, according to the WHO.
As of May 19, the CDC reported over 530 confirmed cases and 134 deaths, with the case fatality rate estimated between 25 and 50 percent. The epicenter is in Ituri Province, northeastern DRC, in the Mongwalu mining area, where the first patient — a nurse — sought treatment on April 24. By late April, samples had to be shipped over 600 miles to Kinshasa for confirmatory testing because standard field tests cannot detect the Bundibugyo strain.
The Erosion of U.S. Global Health Infrastructure
For decades, the United States was the world’s leading force in global health security. USAID and the CDC maintained extensive disease surveillance networks in DRC — a country that has experienced at least 17 Ebola outbreaks since 1976. But a series of Trump administration actions systematically dismantled this infrastructure.
In February 2025, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began dismantling USAID. Musk claimed DOGE had “accidentally” cut Ebola prevention funding but said it was restored — though WIRED reported that lifesaving work was not restored. In April 2025, the administration instructed an NIH facility studying Ebola to stop its research. The U.S. officially withdrew from the WHO in January 2026, and humanitarian aid funding in DRC dropped from over $900 million in 2024 to $179 million — a nearly 80 percent reduction.
How the Cuts Delayed Detection
Health experts point to several ways the dismantling of aid programs contributed to the delayed detection. Grace Tran, a former USAID Ebola preparedness worker, told NPR: “Outbreaks are always going to occur. It’s more the fact that it circulated for so long, and this thing is much bigger than we’ve realized. I think that part is related to cuts.”
USAID had historically supported the logistics of transporting viral samples from remote locations to centralized labs. In this outbreak, testing began in late April, but delays in shipping samples to Kinshasa — along with improper shipments that degraded samples — hampered the process. Flight cancellations made it even harder to transport materials between Kinshasa and Bunia.
Ana Bodipo-Mbuyamba, who served as USAID’s health office director in DRC from 2018 to 2023, explained: “When you dismantle those programs, you no longer have your frontline eyes and ears on the ground that can alert you. Not having that, you lose precious time, and then precious lives get lost because of that.”
The CDC — historically a key partner in analyzing samples and providing field epidemiology expertise — was only notified of the outbreak the day before it was declared, according to CDC Ebola response incident manager Satish Pillai. Typically, the U.S. would have been informed much sooner.
Humanitarian organizations that served as informal surveillance networks in conflict zones were also hit hard. The International Rescue Committee had to scale back from covering five health zones in Ituri to just two after funding cuts, leaving vast areas unmonitored.
A ‘Perfect Storm’
The convergence of cuts created what one current CDC employee described to WIRED as a “perfect storm.” The employee, speaking anonymously, said: “We are so far behind in this outbreak.” Another CDC staffer noted that the pool of responders available to deploy is “much, much smaller than it was just a year ago.”
Salim Abdool Karim, head of CAPRISA and a member of the Africa CDC emergency committee, told NPR: “The reality is that the US government is missing in action. We’re not sitting there pining, oh, where’s the U.S. government? We’ve moved on.”
Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID Ebola response official under the Obama administration, expressed grave concern: “I’m very, very worried. If I compare this to past outbreaks, this one has more momentum at point — at time of detection — than the huge West Africa outbreak in 2014 did.”
Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC, told The Guardian: “Currently, I’m on panic mode because people are dying. I don’t have medicines. I don’t have [a] vaccine to support countries.”
The Administration’s Response
The State Department has pushed back against the criticism, stating: “It is false to claim that the USAID reform has negatively impacted our ability to respond to Ebola. In fact, by bringing USAID global health functions under the new GHSD bureau at the State Department, our efforts are more aligned and effective.” The administration announced funding for up to 50 clinics and mobilized approximately $23 million through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
But critics argue the response is too little, too late. “It is so unfortunate and so sad to see all the work that we did, just like, disappear,” Bodipo-Mbuyamba said. “There was no reason for the dismantling [of USAID] in such a vicious way, now we’re suffering the consequences.”
What Comes Next
Uganda has suspended all cross-border traffic with DRC to curb the spread, and a mob burned a treatment center in DRC before calm was restored. The conflict in Ituri — where rebel attacks by ADF and M23 groups continue — further complicates the response.
With no approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain, health officials are racing to contain an outbreak that may be far larger than current case counts suggest. Experts warn that without a rapid restoration of global health funding and international coordination, the outbreak could spiral into the worst Ebola crisis since the 2014 West Africa epidemic that killed over 11,000 people.
As Anna Tate, a former biosecurity strategy lead at HHS who now leads programs for Project HOPE, told WIRED: “Outbreak response capacity cannot be built overnight during a crisis.”