This Ebola outbreak raises questions about when it all began and the U.S. response

"Over the span of a few days, public health officials went from announcing a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on May 15 and Uganda to declaring it an international public health emergency two days later. By that time, the toll was notable. More than 200 people had been infected, and more than 80 had died before the disease was identified as a rare strain of Ebola, the viral hemorrhagic fever that sparked a global outbreak in 2014."

"The early data on the outbreak - 246 suspected cases and 65 suspected deaths in the initial report raised the eyebrows of some infectious disease experts. "My immediate impression was that this is an extraordinarily large number of deaths and suspected cases that was being reported in what was supposed to be a new outbreak," says Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease physician at Emory University. "My immediate instinct was that this has been ongoing for a couple of weeks and has taken some time to identify. That sent off alarm bells in my mind.""

"Health officials now believe that the first known case was a health worker in Bunia, DRC, who began experiencing fever, hemorrhaging, vomiting and intense malaise on April 24. That person later died, according to WHO. But it would take another three weeks before health officials officially said Ebola was spreading. That delay has allowed the virus to spread, says Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and former director of the United States Agency for International Development's Office o"

Public health officials announced a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on May 15 and declared it an international public health emergency two days later. Early reports listed 246 suspected cases and 65 suspected deaths, prompting concern that the outbreak might have been ongoing before official recognition. Health officials later believed the first known case involved a health worker in Bunia who developed fever, hemorrhaging, vomiting, and intense malaise on April 24 and died. Officials did not state that Ebola was spreading until about three weeks later, allowing further transmission. The outbreak’s timing raised questions about when it began and why detection occurred late, including whether U.S. involvement was affected by withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

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