Public-health expert Dr. Ashish Jha said U.S. funding cuts under the Donald Trump administration helped an Ebola outbreak spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The lack of financial support limited the speed and scale of the global response, reducing the availability of vaccines, personnel, and critical logistics. This resource gap allowed the virus to penetrate further into the region during a critical window of containment.
Thousands of people may be at risk of infection in the outbreak area [1]. The crisis intensified in late May, prompting World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to visit the Ituri region on May 28, 2026 [2]. The WHO chief's visit focused on the strained response efforts, particularly around the Bunia airport [2, 3].
Dr. Jha said the Donald Trump administration's funding cuts caused a muted global response to the outbreak in the DRC [4]. He said the tepid response from the U.S. hindered the broader international effort to halt the virus.
Despite these criticisms, the U.S. has maintained some active involvement in the region. The Kenyan government recently approved a U.S. request to establish a quarantine facility to manage the health crisis [2]. This facility is intended to support containment and monitoring as the epidemic continues to outpace the world's response [3].
Medical officials in the Ituri province continue to struggle with the breakneck speed of the epidemic. The disparity between the available resources and the growing number of cases has created a precarious situation for local health workers, and the civilian population [3].
“Dr. Ashish Jha blamed the Donald Trump administration's funding cuts for a muted global response to the outbreak in the DRC.”
The tension between the U.S. government's operational actions, such as establishing quarantine facilities in Kenya, and its overarching funding policies highlights a systemic vulnerability in global health security. When the world's largest donor reduces financial commitments, it creates a lag in the deployment of vaccines and personnel, which can turn a containable outbreak into a regional epidemic.
