This Ebola outbreak raises questions about when it all began -- and the U.S. response

Global Health This Ebola outbreak raises questions about when it all began — and the U.S. response May 18, 20264:10 PM ET By  Jonathan Lambert ,  Pien Huang To keep Ebola from spreading in this current outbreak, a border health officer at the Busunga crossing between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo checks a traveler's temperature using a contactless infrared thermometer on May 18. Badru Katumba/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Badru Katumba/AFP/via Getty Images Over the span of a few days, public health officials went from announcing a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on May 15 and Uganda to declaring it an international public health emergency two days later. By that time, the toll was notable. More than 200 people had been infected, and more than 80 had died before the disease was identified as a rare strain of Ebola, the viral hemorrhagic fever that sparked a global outbreak in 2014. There are two critical questions about timing: When did this outbreak actually start? And why did public health officials detect it so late? Sponsor Message And there's another key question to consider: Has the U.S., which has traditionally been a key player in emerging outbreaks, been hampered in its response by its withdrawal from the World Health Organization? When did it start? The early data on the outbreak —- 246 suspected cases and 65 suspected deaths in the initial report — raised the eyebrows of some infectious disease experts. "My immediate impression was that this is an extraordinarily large number of deaths and suspected cases that was being reported in what was supposed to be a new outbreak," says Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease physician at Emory University. "My immediate instinct was that this has been ongoing for a couple of weeks and has taken some time to identify. That sent off alarm bells in my mind." Since then, the toll has risen to at least 88 deaths and more than 330 suspected infections....