This Ebola Outbreak Will Be Hard to Contain

Why It Matters

The combination of local instability and diminished international support raises the risk of a larger, harder-to-contain epidemic with regional and global health implications, stressing already fragile health systems. Reduced funding and coordination hamper rapid response measures—testing, treatment, contact tracing and vaccination—that are critical to stopping Ebola's spread.

Summary

A new Ebola outbreak centered in two mining towns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spreading rapidly, driven by high population movement, inconsistent health-care access, and violence from armed groups that impede treatment and surveillance. Early detection was delayed, and response capacity has been weakened by recent US cuts to foreign-aid programs and the broader US withdrawal of funding from the World Health Organization. Those funding lapses and program suspensions have reduced delivery of medicine and emergency health support to rural clinics in the affected region. Public-health experts warn that because Ebola requires near-perfect containment, the late and diminished response makes the epidemic far harder to control.

Original Description

The global response to the current Ebola outbreak could be further complicated by U.S. cuts to foreign aid, Hana Kiros and Katherine J. Wu report.