<\/p>\n
As an\u00a0Ebola<\/span> outbreak\u00a0continues to rage in Central Africa, the Trump administration keeps trying to blame the World Health Organization \u2014 revealing what experts say is a deep misunderstanding about global disease response.<\/p>\n In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local health workers have been battling the devastating virus without adequate supplies, testing materials, or international support. The outbreak is further complicated by the rare strain of the disease, known as Bundibugyo, that standard field tests often miss and for which there are no vaccines or therapeutics.\u00a0At least 62 people in Congo and one in Uganda have died according to WHO<\/a>, but experts say this is likely a significant undercount due to the outbreak emerging in a remote, war-torn region.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outbreak had a big head start, and we\u2019re still behind, but under the leadership of the Government of DRC, we are catching up,\u201d WHO Director-General\u00a0Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told<\/a> journalists on Wednesday, after a visit to the epicenter of the outbreak. African health officials say\u00a0that it might take nine months or more to get a handle on the outbreak.<\/p>\n Experts say Trump administration policies \u2014 like dismantling<\/a> the U.S. Agency for International Development and withdrawing from WHO \u2014 have undermined global health security and negatively impacted the response to the outbreak. The U.S. had been the\u00a0largest provider of humanitarian assistance and health sector support\u00a0to the Democratic Republic of Congo, funding more than 70 percent<\/a>\u00a0of humanitarian work there, according to a 2025 report from Physicians for Human Rights which noted the aid cuts have \u201cseverely harmed\u201d public health and humanitarian efforts, including infectious disease control. The Trump administration has\u00a0reportedly even barred<\/a>\u00a0some U.S. health officials from communicating with counterparts at WHO.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the face of criticism of a U.S. failure to quickly respond to the Ebola outbreak, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott lashed out at WHO and heaped praise on his boss. \u201cThe security concerns in the area \u2013 which President Trump has taken unprecedented steps to address \u2013 and the WHO\u2019s delay in informing the world of concerns until May 15 has had an impact,\u201d he told The Intercept.<\/p>\n Public health experts say Piggot\u2019s response exposes a fundamental confusion about how authorities combat infectious disease. \u201cIt reveals a lack of understanding about how international health regulations work and what a \u2018public health emergency of international concern\u2019 actually is,\u201d 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, told The Intercept.<\/p>\n On May 5, WHO issued an alert of a high-mortality outbreak in Congo\u2019s Ituri Province, which included deaths among healthcare workers. On May 14, blood samples were finally analyzed across the country, in the capital, Kinshasa. A day later, the analysis\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0Bundibugyo virus disease, a strain of Ebola.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also need to remember that Ebola is only one health threat among many that these communities face.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, explained that affected nations are the lead actors. \u201cWHO does not declare. It\u2019s the member states who declare,\u201d he told The Intercept on Thursday. \u201cOn the 15th, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda declared. On the 16th, we declared the presence of Ebola, and on the 17th, Director-General Tedros declared this as a \u2018public health emergency of international concern.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire, WHO Africa\u2019s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, further explained that under the well-defined protocols, states have the obligation to declare an outbreak after which the WHO informs the rest of the world and begins providing support. \u201cThere is a clear, well-defined methodology and it is clearly outlined in the international health regulations,\u201d she told The Intercept.<\/p>\n The response is markedly quicker than in some previous outbreaks. During the\u00a02014\u201316 Ebola crisis<\/a>\u00a0in West Africa \u2014 when more than 28,000 people were infected and more than 11,000 died in the largest ever outbreak of the disease \u2014 WHO became aware that Ebola was\u00a0spreading in Guinea<\/a>\u00a0in March 2014 but did not declare a \u201cPublic Health Emergency of International Concern\u201d until almost\u00a0five months later<\/a>.<\/p>\n Blame for any lag in response is not the fault of WHO, argued Harris, noting that USAID previously supported NGOs and healthcare workers in rural communities on the front lines of such outbreaks. \u201cDr. Tedros declared it without even calling the emergency committee together, so he wasted no time once they had information about the extent of the outbreak and the fact that clearly it had been running silently for a long time,\u201d said Harris. \u201cBut the silence of the outbreak is not something you could lay at the feet of WHO. You lay that at the feet of a very fragile health system in the middle of a conflict that the rest of the world should be doing something to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n The number of suspected Ebola cases in Congo has been reduced from over 1,000 last week to 116\u00a0as teams work through a backlog of tests. Experts say many suspected cases turned out to be malaria. This large number of people with untreated malaria demonstrates, they note, the chronic healthcare deficiencies in the region and a need for a comprehensive focus on public health there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also need to remember that Ebola is only one health threat among many that these communities face,\u201d said<\/a> Tedros. \u201cOne of the things I heard from the community leaders is that they worry that the response to Ebola may take resources away from the health and humanitarian services they rely on for their many other needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n