Consequences of The United States has quickly reduced foreign aid around the world, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where unidentified disease with Ebola type symptoms has ravaged several villages. This disease has killed more than 60 people and overshadowed more than a thousand, and it occurs at the same time as an epidemic of Ebola in neighboring Uganda, as well as the increase in political violence within the DRC.
Experts say that the so-called dismantling by the Elon Musk Government Department of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) hampered the response to this unidentified disease, delaying more in-depth surveys and containment efforts for additional epidemics.
“The medical staff along the Uganda-DRC border has been terminated. Soldiers are everywhere. The laboratory built to cope with zoonotic diseases with American funding is empty, “explains Tim Allen, teacher of London economics school and expert in control of tropical disorders on the land on the border of Uganda and the DRC.
Nidhi Bouri, the former deputy assistant director of global health at USAID during the Joe Biden administration who previously directed the efforts to prepare disease and response, says that aid reductions have created a gap in the field response. “We don’t have the presence in the country,” she says. USAID previously provided key infrastructure and support for disease monitoring and prevention; This worked in tandem with the American centers for the control and prevention of diseases on complementary tasks, explains Bouri. “Once a pathogen is identified, the USAID has historically been able to identify rapid means of alleviating propagation.” By suddenly eliminating USAID, the Donald Trump administration has created a void that other agencies will find it difficult to fulfill completely.
The American State Department did not respond to requests for comments. “The CDC closely monitors the situation with the DRC officials on the support that the agency can offer,” said Melissa Dibble, spokesperson for Centers for Disease Control.
Although the disease in the DRC is still officially unidentified, certain contradictory theories emerge on its cause. The World Health Organization Now supposet That unidentified disease could actually be a mass incident rather than a virus, with contaminated water as a probable source. Or, if it is a virus, it may not be new at all; Last year in the DRC, an epidemic of an unknown disease was discovered as respiratory infections Combined with malaria. Local health officials, including experts from Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sending programs That this can be the case again.
In 2024, the United States Congress appropriate 795 million dollars for the control of malaria, most of which were intended to serve sub -Saharan Africa, which cages most of world malaria infections. Nevertheless, DOGE directed the rapid dismantling of the vast majority of this aid. “The cessation of American programs which prevent and deal with malaria will lead to epidemics and an exponential increase in deaths,” said Martin Edlund, CEO of non -profit malaria. a declaration. “New modeling shows that a year of disruption would lead to nearly 15 million additional malaria cases and 107,000 additional deaths. »»
