Results of The US is rapidly cutting foreign aid around the world, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where unidentified diseases with symptoms like Ebola have destroyed several villages. The disease has killed more than 60 people, and over 1,000 people have become ill, coinciding with the outbreak of Ebola in neighbouring Uganda and the rise in political violence within the DRC.
Experts say they have dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by Elon Musk's so-called Government Efficiency Bureau.
“Medical staff along the Uganda-DRC border are finished. Soldiers are everywhere. Tim Allen, a London professor of economics and expert on tropical separation control at the Uganda-DRC border, said:
During the Joe Biden administration, which previously led disease preparation and response efforts, Nidhi Bouri, former assistant assistant administrator at USAID's Global Health, says cuts in aid have caused a gap in ground response. “We don't have a domestic presence,” she says. USAID previously provided support for surveillance and prevention of critical infrastructure and diseases. It worked in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Complementary Tasks, Bouri says. “Once pathogens were identified, USAID historically was able to identify rapid ways to mitigate further spread.” The Donald Trump administration suddenly attacked USAID, creating a blank that other agencies struggle to fully fill.
The US State Department did not respond to requests for comment. “The CDC monitors the situation closely and is engaging with DRC officials about the support that agents can provide,” says Melissa Dible Center, a spokesman for disease control.
Although the disease of DRC is still officially unknown, there are several contradictory theories about its cause. The World Health Organization now suspects that the unidentified disease is actually a mass toxic incident rather than a virus, and that it is likely that contaminated water is the source. Or, if it's a virus, it may not be completely novel. Last year, DRC discovered that the outbreak of an unknown disease is a respiratory infection combined with malaria. Local health officials, including experts at the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, have assumed this could once again be the case.
In 2024, the US Congress allocated $795 million to malaria control. Most were intended to serve sub-Saharan Africa, which weathered most of the global malaria infections. Nevertheless, Doge directed the rapid dismantling of the majority of this aid. “Stoping US programs to prevent and treat malaria will lead to an exponential increase in outbreaks and death,” Martin Edland, CEO of nonprofit malaria, said in a statement. “New modelling shows that the year's disruption will lead to nearly 15 million additional cases of malaria and 107,000 additional deaths.”
