Ebola spreads faster as US dismantles health safeguards

The World Health Organization says an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has accelerated, with deaths rising to at least 130 and more than 500 suspected cases. The rare Bundibugyo strain, weak infrastructure in eastern Congo, and war

When the World Health Organization’s chief director took the floor on Tuesday. the numbers he cited landed like a warning you can’t shake. He said he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed” of an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda that has already resulted in a spike in deaths — to at least 130 — and more than 500 suspected cases.

The outbreak is complicated by a rare strain of the disease. known as Bundibugyo. that standard field tests often miss and for which there are no vaccines or therapeutics. As the outbreak moves. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that new cases are emerging in urban areas. including reports of cases in Uganda’s capital. Kampala. and Goma. a crossroads city in Congo that borders Rwanda.

Experts and public health observers have also raised alarm that the virus has likely been spreading undetected for weeks at least — and possibly months — in Ituri Province. a remote region of eastern Congo that borders South Sudan and Uganda. The province. long riven by conflict. is home to many displaced persons and a haven for itinerant workers and smuggling operations. Its weak medical and public health infrastructure makes contact tracing extremely difficult.

Tedros returned to that theme in describing how conflict and displacement are feeding the outbreak’s reach. “The province of Ituri is highly insecure. … Conflict has intensified since late 2025, and fighting has escalated significantly over the past two months, resulting in civilian deaths. Over 100,000 people have been newly displaced, and in Ebola outbreaks, you know what displacement means,” he said. “The area is also a mining zone, with high levels of population movement that increase the risk of further spread.”.

The stakes feel personal in places like Goma. where past outbreaks showed how quickly an urban route can turn a localized crisis into a broader one. The Intercept previously reported on porous borders and worrying public health responses in Goma during an Ebola outbreak in 2019. At that time, Anthony Fauci — then the head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — warned of the risk of spread in a city of millions with an international airport. “Since Goma is a city of millions of people. and since it has an international airport. it is a great concern. ” he explained. “If Ebola could get into Goma and spread in Goma. that increases the likelihood that it could spread beyond the DRC into neighboring and distant countries.”.

Tedros’ Tuesday warning about emerging cases in Kampala and in Goma lands in the same place: the virus doesn’t need permission from borders to move. It only needs time, movement, and gaps in detection.

Those gaps are at the center of a broader dispute now playing out across federal agencies and Capitol Hill. Experts say Trump administration policies — including dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and withdrawing from WHO — have undermined global health security and negatively impacted the response to the outbreak.

Margaret Harris. a former senior WHO official and a medical doctor who responded to Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in the mid-2010s and Congo in the late 2010s. pointed directly to the kind of help that can keep an outbreak from accelerating. She praised the past work of USAID, and the U.S. overall, in responding to earlier Ebola outbreaks. “They’re the people standing between us and disaster,” she said.

Harris argued the current outbreak can be managed, but not with promises alone. It will take funding, training, equipment, and supplies for local healthcare workers — including personal protective equipment, medications, and fluids. She said some critics argue governments should pay for their own health workers, but she rejected that framing. Front-line personnel, she said, provide a service that extends beyond national borders. “They are protecting global health security. ” she told The Intercept. adding. “And they were also simply doing good for ordinary people.”.

A U.S. government official with experience working with foreign non-governmental organizations. who spoke on background because they were not authorized to talk with the press on the subject. told The Intercept on Tuesday that there was “no question” Trump administration policies helped undermine the global public health response. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn, echoed that assessment.

DeLauro said. “Infectious diseases do not respect political borders.” In remarks tied to the response. she argued that “The Trump administration has systematically dismantled much of our global health infrastructure. without giving a thought to the consequences. Now. we are seeing those consequences play out. ” and she pointed to actions including the dissolution of USAID. cutting the United States off from the WHO. and mass layoffs across the domestic global public health space.

DeLauro said. “This will not be the last outbreak of a deadly infectious disease. ” and argued for investment in global health infrastructure. “We must invest in global health infrastructure. Not only to be reliable and effective partners, but to be prepared for the next outbreak. In public health, isolation is not a strategy. Infectious diseases do not respect political borders.”.

The clock, and what happened on it, is where the disagreement sharpens. On Monday. the State Department announced that on “May 15. 2026. within 24 hours of learning of the confirmed cases. the Department leveraged its outbreak response and humanitarian assistance capabilities.” But Tedros said the WHO had issued an alert of a high-mortality outbreak in Ituri. including deaths among healthcare workers. 10 days earlier.

Further details show the delay points in stark steps. On May 14, blood samples were finally analyzed across the country in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. A day later, the analysis confirmed Bundibugyo virus disease, a strain of Ebola.

DeLauro said in a separate press release, “I cannot help but wonder if the administration had not taken such drastic action to dismantle so much of our global health infrastructure, that we would have been able to identify this outbreak earlier and stop it from spreading as much as it has.”

The State Department disputed that link. A State Department spokesperson told The Intercept. “It is false to claim that the USAID reform has negatively impacted our ability to respond to Ebola.” The spokesperson said. “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 spokesperson added that “Funding and support to combat Ebola continue. working with allies and partners.” When asked about the lag between the first notification of a disease outbreak and the U.S. response, the spokesperson did not reply to multiple requests for comment.

On his first day back in office last year, Trump began the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO and cutting all funding for the U.N. health agency. “World Health ripped us off,” Trump said at the time. The withdrawal process was completed January of this year.

Tedros said on Tuesday that WHO has a team on the ground supporting national responses to the African outbreak. He said the organization had “deployed people, supplies, equipment and funds,” including millions from an emergency fund.

“The outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus in the past two weeks show why international threats need an international response. ” Tedros said on Tuesday. also referring to a recent outbreak on an expedition cruise ship of a rare virus carried by rodents. “They show why the world needs the international health regulations, and why it needs WHO.”.

Behind the institutional arguments sits a basic reality both sides acknowledge. even as they fight over responsibility: in outbreaks like this. early detection and rapid support aren’t political abstractions. They are the difference between a contained threat and one that reaches crowded places like Goma and urban neighborhoods further beyond.

Ebola Bundibugyo WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Democratic Republic of Congo Uganda Kampala Goma Ituri Province USAID WHO withdrawal global health security Rosa DeLauro Anthony Fauci