“As Ebola Spreads in Uganda, Trump Aid Freeze Hinders Effort to Contain It, U.S. Officials Fear”
By Abdi Latif Dahir and Stephanie Nolen
“The Ebola outbreak in Uganda has worsened significantly, and the country’s ability to contain the spread has been severely weakened by the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign assistance, American officials said this week.
The officials, representing a variety of health and security agencies, made the assessment during a meeting with U.S. Embassy staff in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, on Wednesday. An audio recording of the session was obtained by The New York Times.
There have been two more deaths, the mother and newborn sibling of a 4-year-old who died last week, an American official said. The mother and sibling died earlier than the 4-year-old, but were not identified as probable Ebola cases until after they were buried through belated contact tracing.
Eighty-two people have so far been identified as close contacts of the mother and her two children, at high risk for infection, and 68 of them are now in quarantine while the others are still being traced. The officials said public health workers’ ability to trace their contacts and conduct surveillance for new cases is severely hindered without U.S. assistance.
to read the full article go to
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/health/ebola-uganda-usaid.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
‘Second cluster reported in Uganda’s Ebola Sudan outbreak’
By Lisa Schnirring
“Ngashi Ngongo, MD, MPH, PhD, principal adviser to the Africa CDC’s director-general and its mpox incident manager, said at a briefing today that there are no direct epidemiologic links between the new cluster and the last one. He added, however, that genetic sequencing shows that the same strain is involved, which likely rules out a new jump from animals and suggests that undetected transmission is highly likely.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/second-cluster-reported-ugandas-ebola-sudan-outbreak
“Musk claims DOGE ‘restored’ Ebola prevention effort. Officials disagree.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/elon-musk-ebola-prevention-usaid-doge/
“Musk’s Reckless Ebola Cuts Could Lead to Deadly Pandemics”
By David Corn.
“Last week, standing in front of President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire running a blitzkrieg against the US government, acknowledged that he had made a mistake—that in going after the US Agency for International Development, the foreign assistance program that he has all but destroyed, he accidentally ended the Ebola prevention project it ran overseas. Musk claimed the error was quickly fixed and there was no interruption in service. But former and current USAID staff quickly told the Washington Post that Musk was wrong—the Ebola response remained sharply curtailed. And, as the Bulwark reported, Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID, who was placed on administrative leave Sunday, had drafted an unfinished memo that predicted the demolition of USAID would lead to more than 28,000 cases of Ebola and related diseases, as well as a 28 to 32 percent increase in tuberculosis globally, up to 18 million cases of malaria (with up to 166,000 deaths annually), and an additional 200,000 cases of paralytic polio a year.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/ebola-musk-doge-cuts-usaid-impacts-video/
“WHO says Uganda’s Ebola caseload rises to 12”
By Reuters
The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal to raise $11.2 million to help fund the country’s response to the outbreak after the country’s health budget was strained by U.S. cuts to foreign aid.
Uganda has launched a trial vaccination programme against the Sudan strain of Ebola. Existing vaccines are for the Zaire strain of Ebola, which was behind recent outbreaks in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
to read the full article go to
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-says-ugandas-ebola-caseload-rises-12-2025-03-05/
“Leaked USAID Memos Warn 100,000s Will Die from Cuts to Polio, TB, Malaria, Ebola, AIDS Programs”
By Brett Murphy
“One leaked memo has a chart for different program areas and the expected global case increase over one year if programs are permanently halted. For malaria, an additional 12.5 million to 17.9 million cases, with up to 166,000 additional deaths each year. For tuberculosis, a 28 to 32% increase in estimated incidence globally. For Ebola, worst-case scenario, more than 28,000 cases. Polio, an additional 200,000 paralytic polio cases a year over the next decade. The memo also projects 1 million children will lose treatment for severe acute malnutrition each year. It was written by USAID’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health Nicholas Enrich. Over the weekend, Enrich was placed on administrative leave.”
to read the full article go to
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/6/usaid_memo_disease_nicholas_enrich