An Ebola outbreak in central and East Africa is expanding, with response efforts hindered by reduced foreign aid and global health funding. Public health workers report shortages of basic protective equipment such as masks and hand sanitizers, along with limited components needed for testing, preventing immediate action. Global health experts describe a strained and fragmented disease prevention and response system linked to U.S. funding changes, including moves to shutter USAID and other cuts. A reduced workforce faces burnout, and experienced CDC staff warn the situation is a “perfect storm.” WHO declared the outbreak an emergency of international concern, and the Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine or treatment, with rising confirmed cases and deaths and a high fatality risk.
"“We are no longer able to get some supplies,” Amadou Bocoum, Democratic Republic of Congo country director for the anti-poverty nonprofit CARE, tells WIRED. “Because of that, we are not able to react immediately.” Bocoum says that basic medical equipment like masks and hand sanitizers, as well as components necessary for testing, are in short supply due to funding cuts."
"WIRED spoke to more than half a dozen global health experts who described how the Trump administration's move to shutter the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), amid other funding cuts, has created a strained, increasingly fragmented disease prevention and response system in the lead up to this Ebola outbreak, one in which a severely reduced workforce already struggles with burnout."
"“We are so far behind in this outbreak,” says a current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employee with outbreak experience. “This is a perfect storm.” The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak an emergency “of international concern” on May 16. There is no vaccine or treatment for this strain of Ebola, known as Bundibugyo."
"“People really need to understand that if this is not handled carefully, it will get wild very easily,” says Bocoum. “It's really key that we need to react fast to contain it.” The outbreak was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri region, an area that borders South Sudan and Uganda and is known as a throughway for refugees."
Read at WIRED
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