CRITICISM OF US RESPONSE
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the strain responsible for the current spread of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever.
Ninety-one reported deaths are suspected to have been caused by the current surge in cases, according to the latest figures released on Sunday by Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba.
Around 350 suspected cases have been reported. Most of those affected are aged between 20 and 39 and more than 60 per cent are women.
The United States, under Trump, formally withdrew from the WHO this year.
In recent days, US officials have avoided questions about how the administration’s cutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – key in responding to previous Ebola outbreaks – has impacted current efforts to monitor and manage the virus’s spread.
CDC officials have emphasised they are collaborating with international partners and health officials in impacted countries.
The public health measures announced Monday will include continued “deployment of CDC personnel to support outbreak containment efforts in affected regions” as well as assistance with contact tracing and laboratory testing, the agency said.
And the US State Department said in a statement Monday it had mobilised US$13 million in aid for “immediate response efforts”.
But Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, said the US response thus far was “disappointing” and called travel bans “more theatre than effective public health measures”.
“The administration claimed it could negotiate bilateral deals and replace the capacity of WHO with domestic efforts. This outbreak clearly shows that is a failed strategy,” he told AFP.
He said during previous Ebola outbreaks, coordinated efforts between USAID, the CDC and US-funded nonprofits led to rapid response and containment.
This time, “we’re weeks into an outbreak and only finding out about it after hundreds of cases and major spread, including to the capital city of Uganda”, Kavanagh said, adding that the Trump administration was “playing catch-up”.