More than 500 people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of the ongoing Ebola outbreak, as experts say cuts in international aid have prevented the country from containing the virus.
They existed 1,561 recorded Ebola cases, including 506 deathssince the outbreak of the disease was reported on May 15, according to the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The World Health Organization called the first month of the Ebola outbreak the worst on record. Slowing the spread of the virus has been complicated by the lack of treatment options for Bundibugyo, the causative agent of the recent Ebola outbreak.
The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization, had previously announced drastic cuts in global aid weakened frontline health and preparedness systemsThis means that Congo now has a more fragile health system than it did during the 2018-2020 outbreak, which killed more than 2,000 people.
“The warning signs are flashing red,” Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies for the IRC, said in a statement. “Intensified conflict and cuts in global aid have reduced defenses at exactly the wrong moment. The lesson of every previous outbreak is clear: delays cost lives. Risks are growing and resources are shrinking; this is the brutal reckoning facing global aid today.”
In February 2025, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, a special advisory group led by Elon Musk, helped effectively gut the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal agency primarily responsible for disbursing foreign aid. Eliminating approximately 83% of its programs.
DOGE officially ended on July 4th, but the effects remain.
All U.S. humanitarian funding has been cut from $14 billion in 2024 to $3.7 billion in 2025said Refugees International. Foreign aid cuts last year are estimated to have led to this more than 750,000 preventable deaths.
How USAID cuts exacerbated the Ebola outbreak in Congo
USAID played a critical role in preventing previous Ebola outbreaks. Phuong Pham, associate professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said in a interview for the college that the U.S. previously led the world in combating infectious outbreaks, including Ebola, and USAID served as an operational arm to respond to public health crises.
In the past, the agency has maintained a constant presence in countries such as Congo, increasing laboratory capacity for Ebola testing and training health workers in the region to recognize signs of the virus and collect samples. USAID would also provide liaison between local communities and other organizations such as WHO and UNICEF. Pham said USAID helped vaccinate more than 300,000 people against the disease during the 2018 outbreak.
Following the recent outbreak, the U.S. State Department announced that it would provide $23 million in emergency assistance to Congo and Uganda to strengthen Ebola containment and prevention efforts by working to establish 50 Ebola screening, isolation and treatment clinics.
Last month also the White House requested more than $1.4 billion from Congress to combat the Ebola outbreak, including $800 million in humanitarian assistance funding. Dedicated resources to curb the spread of disease are critical, Pham said, but they do not replace the emergency response infrastructure that USAID helped create.
“This support is urgently needed and can save lives,” she said. “However, the emergency response cannot fully replace the sustained investments required before an outbreak begins.”
Craig Spencer, an emergency physician and associate professor at Brown University School of Public Health, said the impact of USAID cuts as a result of DOGE is already being felt. In one New York Times op edHe found that samples of the virus delivered to a laboratory in Kinshasa, Congo, were at the wrong temperature, part of operations previously monitored by USAID.
“I have seen Ebola up close. I contracted it while treating patients in West Africa in 2014,” Spencer wrote. “I know how devastating the disease can be – and how unprepared we are for its return.”
The State Department did not immediately respond AssetsPlease comment.
Musk’s reaction to DOGE’s role in USAID fallout
Musk, for his part, denied that DOGE played a negative role in the spread of the virus. In February 2025, Musk admitted that DOGE ended accidentally– and then quickly resumed funding for Ebola prevention, with no disruption to programming.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna last month blames Musk and DOGE Musk denied claims of killing millions of children as a result of cuts to USAID and other key agencies, and endorsed several posts on X disputing Khanna’s claim.
“Exactly,” Musk wrote in response to a post. “And they can’t name a single name of anyone who died out of the ‘millions’ they falsely claim died. Not a single name!”