US pledges major Ebola aid surge, slams WHO over delayed alert in Africa outbreak
Washington: Pledging a major surge in assistance to contain a fast-moving Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, the Trump Administration sharply criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for what American officials described as a delayed global alert that may have cost critical response time.
Senior US officials said Washington had already committed about $23 million in bilateral humanitarian and health assistance and was preparing a much larger package to fund up to 50 Ebola treatment centres and clinics in affected areas.
“The United States is going to step up in a big way,” one official said, adding that the commitment would run into “nine figures” as organisations establish clinics and deploy personnel into the field.
Officials said the outbreak was centred in a remote, conflict-affected region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), complicating efforts to identify cases, move supplies and deploy responders.
“We were late to this because the WHO was a little late to this,” a senior official said during the briefing. “On May 5 they had reports of the viral hemorrhagic fever. They didn’t effectively track that down and identify that it was an Ebola strain for 10 days.”
The official added that the delay was particularly damaging because “those few days can make a huge difference”.
US officials said the WHO confirmed the outbreak publicly only on May 15, after which Washington rapidly mobilised emergency response systems, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the State Department and humanitarian agencies.
The State Department said it had activated a 24-hour task force staffed by officials involved in previous Ebola responses in 2014 and 2018. A Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has also been deployed to the region, with personnel heading to Kinshasa and Kampala.
Officials confirmed that one person had tested positive so far among individuals linked to US evacuation efforts, while several others were being monitored for possible exposure.
“We have one positive person so far,” an official said. “There are eight people that are being evacuated.”
The United States has also imposed strict travel restrictions. Under a CDC Title 42 order, foreign nationals who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan within the previous 21 days are barred from entering the US.
However, officials said the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national football team would likely still be able to participate in the upcoming FIFA World Cup because the players were already training in Europe and may not fall within the 21-day restriction window.
US officials rejected suggestions that reductions in USAID operations weakened outbreak detection systems in Africa.
“There was no specific person or program associated with USAID in this region that would have detected this,” one official said, calling allegations to the contrary “a lie”.
Another official said the CDC still maintained a significant footprint in the region, including “over 100 CDC staff” in the DRC and more than 30 personnel in Kampala, most funded through State Department programmes.