Absence of USAID likely slowed Ebola detection and response, former officials say

Health newsAbsence of USAID likely slowed Ebola detection and response, former officials sayThe State Department denies that changes to USAID have hampered the response to the outbreak.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00A border health officer at the Busunga crossing between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo checks a traveler's temperature  on Monday.Badru Katumba / AFP via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 20, 2026, 10:57 AM EDTBy Aria Bendix, Alexander Smith, Erika Edwards and Abigail WilliamsUntil last year, the U.S. Agency for International Development was part of a time-tested system for dealing with Ebola. In its absence, a dozen former federal employees told NBC News, the U.S. response to the growing outbreak has been slow and disjointed.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The Trump administration hollowed out USAID last year, canceling the majority of its programs and firing most of its staffers. Roughly 1,000 programs were salvaged and absorbed into the State Department.In interviews, former top officials at USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the White House said that if USAID was still intact, it’s possible its resources might have helped contain the virus in this new outbreak and even saved lives. The outbreak was identified last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Ebola was likely spreading undetected for weeks before that. As of Wednesday, the number of suspected deaths stood at 139 and cases at 600, according to the World Health Organization, though the true numbers are feared to be much higher.“What we’ve lost is speed, which is the most important thing in an outbreak like this,” said Nicholas Enrich, former acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID.Enrich and other experts said USAID programs could have helped laboratories in Congo detect the virus earlier, sped up the...