KAMPALA, UGANDA — On Jan. 20, US President Donald Trump abruptly cut funding for the surveillance of and response to an outbreak of the Sudan Ebola virus here. Elon Musk, Trump’s unelected right hand, said in a cabinet meeting on Feb. 26 that the Ebola-response funding was “accidentally” cut but restored immediately. Health workers in Uganda, though, say they’ve seen no sign that the funding has been restored.
The United States Agency for International Development administered most of the United States’ foreign aid — until Trump’s executive order abruptly shuttered it. Edith, who requested her full name not be used for fear of retribution, is a public health specialist working on the Ebola response effort in Uganda. She hasn’t seen any evidence that Ebola-response funding has been restored.
“If USAID funds for Ebola prevention were restored immediately, how come we were not told?” she asks.
One indication that the money was cut, potentially for good, she says, is that the Ebola response and surveillance team now comprises just eight people — a far cry from the nearly 60 people who worked on stemming an outbreak in late 2022 and early 2023, when US funding was in place.
The Ugandan government says the US government has supported its efforts to contain the virus — but stopped short of offering more details.
“We have been working very closely together to control this outbreak, and we will continue to work closely together,” Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng said in a Feb. 19 press conference, days before Musk insisted that funding remained in place.
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Global Press Journal reached out to Aceng for more information but did not receive a response. Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, also did not respond to requests for comment. One other government official declined to comment.
“If USAID funds for Ebola prevention were restored immediately, how come we were not told?”
Edith
An Ebola-focused health worker who asked that her full name not be used for fear of retribution
A health worker at a nonprofit in Kampala, who asked not to be named, says the funding wasn’t restored: “Even when the Ministry of Health desperately wanted to increase the number of response and surveillance team members to contain the spread, it couldn’t, because it did not have the adequate support it needed.”
The Ugandan government declared the Sudan virus outbreak on Jan. 30, only a few days after Trump’s executive order. So far, there have been 10 confirmed cases of the illness, and two people have died — a 32-year-old nurse and a 4-year-old boy.
The US has been a major funder of global Ebola response efforts since Uganda’s first outbreak in 2000. During the last outbreak, it provided more than US$22 million (more than 82 billion Ugandan shillings), according to the US Embassy in Uganda. That outbreak lasted just 69 days, ending in early January 2023, according to the World Health Organization. (The US government’s order to end most foreign aid is working its way through the US court system, but the funding freeze remains in effect.)
Uganda could stem out this outbreak, given its previous experience, says Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law. “It has the capacity to do so,” he says, “and has been highly effective in the past.”
To be successful, he says, Uganda must coordinate with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO Africa.
So far, Uganda’s outbreak response has been rapid. By Feb. 3, the country, in partnership with the WHO, had already launched the first-ever vaccine trial for the Sudan strain. Researchers from Makerere University and the Uganda Virus Research Institute, with WHO support, prepared the trial just four days after the outbreak was confirmed. This marks the first clinical efficacy trial for a Sudan Ebola vaccine, made possible through advanced research preparedness while meeting all regulatory and ethical standards.
Eight people confirmed to have the virus were discharged on Feb. 18, after two negative tests 72 hours apart. By Feb. 20, 58 identified contacts were still under observation in quarantine facilities.
There have been six recorded Ebola outbreaks in Uganda, and fatality rates have ranged from around 40% to 70%. The most recent outbreak ended in January 2023. That outbreak resulted in 164 confirmed cases and 77 deaths, according to World Health Organization. If US funding hasn’t been restored, as health workers suspect, Uganda will have to sustain its rapid and comprehensive response to the current outbreak to avoid surpassing those numbers.
- Nakisanze Segawa is a Global Press Journal reporter based in Kampala, Uganda.
- Global Press is an award-winning international news publication with more than 40 independent newsrooms in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
