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A countdown is on to declaring the end of a current Ebola outbreak, but former Biden official Jeremy Konyndyk warns that we might not be so lucky again if US cuts to aid continue to bite
Rachel SchraerGlobal Health CorrespondentFriday 28 November 2025 12:22 GMTComments
open image in galleryHealth workers in the DRC
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As the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is poised to declare its latest Ebola outbreak over, a former US government official who led the response to the deadly virus in 2014 has warned that future outbreaks could spiral out of control because of Donald Trump’s aid cuts.
Jeremy Konyndyk, most recently an official in Joe Biden’s government and now president of Refugees International, told The Independent he feared there would be “large and complex outbreaks in the future that will get out of control because the US government health security preparedness and response capacity has been dismantled”.
The last Ebola patient in the current outbreak in the DRC was discharged from hospital on 19 October, triggering a 42-day countdown to declaring the outbreak over if no further cases are confirmed, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. This is twice the maximum time it takes for someone exposed to the virus to start showing symptoms.
The Ebola virus is spread to humans by animals, and causes internal and external bleeding. It has a death rate that reaches between 50 to 90 per cent unless patients receive very rapid treatment.
“If no new cases are detected, the outbreak will be declared over in early December”, the WHO said.
While the outbreak was on track to being contained, “I think it's important not to over-interpret the relevance of that vis-a-vis the USA,” Konyndyk said.
open image in galleryThe 2025 Ebola outbreak in Bulape, DRC has proven easier to contain than some previous outbreaks. Cuts could change that in the future. (MSF)When Trump took office in January, he cut roughly 80 per cent of all overseas aid including to teams primed to respond to emergency disease outbreaks.
“This is, as things go, a relatively more straightforward containment operation than other outbreaks you might see. It's in a peaceful part of Congo. It's in a country that has dealt with this a lot before and has a lot of capacity. It has that capacity in part because of the sort of investments the US made which are now being cut,” Konyndyk added.
The US previously provided training to local infectious disease experts, funded laboratories, vaccines and treatments as well as prevention. Stockpiles of things like drugs and personal protective equipment (PPE) are not being maintained.
“The progress and success that's apparent so far in the present outbreak is built on the very investments that the Trump administration is now systematically dismantling,” Konyndyk explained. This included investments that had been made by governments of different colours including by Trump himself during his first administration. “That's just been completely shredded. It's gone.”
“Fortunately the outbreak did not metastasise into something larger and more complex that might have exceeded those capacities. But we can’t count on being fortunate indefinitely,” Konyndyk added.
This time, other donors including in European countries stepped in to fill the gap. However, countries across the rich world are set to cut overseas aid in the coming years.
And while the WHO is well-versed in leading outbreaks response, the UN health agency has also faced deep cuts this year including from the US, with more set to come.
“That to my mind is the question for the future,” Konyndyk said. “If this same outbreak happens in two years’ time...will those capabilities still be at the level that they are now?”
This outbreak started with a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was admitted to hospital at the end of August and died within five days. Two health workers treating her also became infected and died.
It is the sixteenth Ebola outbreak the country has faced since the disease was first discovered there in the mid-70s.
International organisations are now withdrawing from the country including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams which handed over their work on 19 October, the same day the last patient was discharged.
This article was produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
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