Experts say USAID closure made virus harder to contain

An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in central Africa has been exacerbated by cuts to U.S. and Western foreign support, experts say, a year after Washington slashed its international aid operations.

In May, authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda declared outbreaks after lab tests detected the spread of Bundibugyo virus, which causes a type of Ebola disease. Transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, wild animals and contaminated objects or meat, Ebola is a rare but serious illness that has a fatality rate of around 50%.

The current outbreak is the 17th that the DRC has suffered. With more than 1,400 cases confirmed to date, it is the third-largest outbreak on record, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, no known cases have been reported in the U.S., but one case has been confirmed in France. The CDC’s latest data shows there have been 440 confirmed deaths from the virus.

Near the beginning of the outbreak, the International Rescue Committee – a global nongovernment organization focused on humanitarian aid, relief, and development – warned that the current outbreak could become the deadliest on record without urgent intervention.

“The warning signs are flashing red,” Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies for the IRC, said in a statement, before noting that the DRC is confronting the current outbreak “more fragile and less prepared” than it had been during the 2018-2020 outbreak that killed more than 2,000 people.

“Increased conflict and cuts to global aid funding have dismantled defenses at exactly the wrong moment,” Kitchen said. “The risks are growing and the resources are shrinking; that is the brutal arithmetic facing global aid today.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development officially closed last July, with the majority of its programs abolished and a small remainder absorbed into the U.S. State Department. The move attracted criticism from former presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush, as well as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

USAID’s demise came as part of the cuts enacted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a temporary organization set up by President Donald Trump shortly after his return to the White House. Trillionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk initially oversaw DOGE’s operations, and recently defended decisions on cutting USAID following claims that it had contributed to the deaths of children.

DOGE officially shuttered on July 4, 2026.

Recent cuts to foreign aid programs are not unique to the U.S., however. Last year, the charity Oxfam noted that G7 countries, which collectively account for around 75% of all official development assistance, were set to slash their aid spending by 28% in 2026 compared to 2024 levels.

According to recently published analysis by researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, French foreign aid is on course to have fallen by around a third since 2023. Germany’s will drop by more than 36%, while the U.K.’s is down 45% compared to recent peak levels.

Virologist Angela Rasmussen is the science chair for activist group the Save America Movement – a non-partisan organization whose goal is to defend “American values” including the constitution, public health, the economy and the United States’ position as a global leader.

She told CNBC in an email that foreign aid cuts have “demonstrably worsened” the Ebola crisis in central Africa. Cuts to critical infrastructure previously funded by USAID has led to increased violence and decreased capacity in the region where the outbreak is occurring, she explained.

In early 2025, fighting broke out between Congolese authorities and groups led by the rebel paramilitary group M23. It culminated in the capture of Goma, a key city on the Rwandan border, which in turn worsened nationwide political violence. Islamic State-affiliated groups have also carried out attacks in eastern DRC, with missile attacks and fighting between M23, Rwandan troops, Congolese forces, and other militia groups remaining commonplace in the region, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The CfR says the situation in the DRC is one of the largest and deadliest humanitarian crises in the world, with 1 million Congolese seeking refuge abroad and 21 million still in the country urgently in need of aid, including medical assistance and supplies.

“The ongoing civil war and lack of well-developed transportation networks has resulted in limiting mobility and these funding cuts have severely decreased trust for humanitarian and medical aid workers, making it difficult and in some cases dangerous to do contact tracing or treat Ebola patients,” Rasmussen told CNBC.

“Shipments cannot get through and existing medical supplies funded by USAID (basic supplies like gloves, PPE, and body bags) are not getting to the hardest hit areas of Ituri province.”

Rasmussen added that the loss of USAID-funded cold chain infrastructure meant swab samples had been degraded during transport to biomedical testing facilities, contributing to delays in detection of the virus.

“Confirming cases is still severely lagging because of the loss of USAID funds has depleted the health system of supplies, equipment, facilities, and staff to operate them,” she said.

Jade Le, an infectious disease specialist and the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Access TeleCare, also told CNBC that foreign aid cuts had “absolutely” made the Ebola outbreak harder to contain. She said USAID had traditionally been heavily involved in building healthcare infrastructure in countries such as DRC, from training healthcare workers to recognize signs and symptoms of diseases like Ebola, to providing testing kits and personal protective equipment, and assisting with transporting samples to labs equipped to test and identify Ebola virus.

“With the dismantling of USAID, the funding cuts and pull-out from WHO, the reductions in workforce at the CDC, and reduced health aid to the DRC, the Trump administration has certainly contributed to the delay in detection and lack of control of this current outbreak,” she said in an email.

CNBC contacted the U.S. government for comment on the impact of foreign aid cuts.

“The US used to be involved early on in outbreaks such as this, with Epidemic Intelligence Service officers sent to investigate outbreaks before they spread rapidly, to quickly identify the cause, isolate patients appropriately and perform contact tracing to ensure control of outbreaks,” Le said.

“This time, U.S. public health and medical experts were unfortunately mobilized much later than in prior outbreaks and U.S. funding release to assist with control of this outbreak will be less effective than if there had been sustained USAID programming in place.”