DOGE cuts to USAID have worsened the Congo’s Ebola outbreak that has killed 500, experts warn

There have been 1,561 recorded cases of Ebola, including 506 deaths, since the disease’s outbreak was declared on May 15, according to DRC’s Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization deemed the first month of the Ebola outbreak the worst on record, and slowing the virus’s spread has been complicated by the lack of treatments for Bundibugyo, the strain behind the most recent Ebola outbreak.

The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization, previously said severe cuts to global aid weakened frontline healthcare and preparedness systems, leaving the Congo with a more fragile health system now than during the 2018-2020 outbreak that killed more than 2,000 individuals.

“The warning signs are flashing red,” Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies at IRC, said in a statement. “Increased conflict and cuts to global aid funding have dismantled defenses at exactly the wrong moment. The lesson from every previous outbreak is clear: delays cost lives. The risks are growing and the resources are shrinking; that is the brutal arithmetic facing global aid today.”

In February 2025, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, a special advisory group led by Elon Musk, helped effectively gut the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal agency primarily responsible for disbursing foreign aid, eliminating about 83% of its programs.

DOGE officially ended on July 4, but its effects remain.

Total U.S. humanitarian funding was slashed from $14 billion in 2024 to $3.7 billion in 2025, according to Refugees International. Cuts to foreign aid in the last year are estimated to have resulted in more than 750,000 preventable deaths.

How USAID cuts exacerbated the Congo’s Ebola outbreak

USAID played a crucial role in preventing previous Ebola outbreaks. Phuong Pham, associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in an interview for the college that the U.S. was previously a global leader in addressing infection outbreaks including Ebola, with USAID as the operating arm for addressing public health crises.

In the past, the agency would have a permanent presence in countries like the Congo and would increase laboratory testing capacity for Ebola and train healthcare workers in the area to identify signs of the virus to collect samples. USAID would also liaise between local communities and other agencies like the WHO and UNICEF. During the 2018 outbreak, USAID helped vaccinate more than 300,000 for the disease, according to Pham.

Following the latest outbreak, the U.S. State Department said it would give $23 million in emergency aid to the Congo and Uganda to bolster Ebola containment and prevention efforts by working to create 50 clinics for Ebola screening, isolation and treatment.

Last month, the White House also requested more than $1.4 billion from Congress to address the Ebola outbreak, including $800 million in humanitarian response funds. Dedicated resources to address the spread of disease are crucial, Pham said, but they doesn’t replace the emergency response infrastructure USAID helped create.

“This support is much needed and may save lives,” she said. “That said, emergency response cannot fully substitute for the sustained investments that are needed before an outbreak begins.”

Craig Spencer, an emergency doctor and associate professor at the Brown University School of Public Health, said the impacts of USAID cuts as a result of DOGE are already being felt. In an New York Times op-ed, he noted samples of the virus delivered to a Kinshasa, Congo, lab were at the wrong temperature, part of the operations previously overseen by USAID.

“I’ve seen Ebola up close. I got it while treating patients in West Africa in 2014,” Spencer wrote. “I know how destructive the disease can be—and how unprepared we are for its return.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.

Musk’s reaction to DOGE’s role in the USAID aftermath

Musk, for his part, has denied DOGE having a negative role in enabling the spread of the virus. In February 2025, Musk admitted DOGE accidentally ended—and then quickly restored—funding for Ebola prevention, saying there was no interruption to programming.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna last month accused Musk and DOGE of killing millions of children as a result of cuts to USAID and other key agencies, a claim Musk disputed, endorsing several posts on X disputing Khanna’s claim.

“Exactly,” Musk wrote in response to one post. “And they cannot cite a single name of someone who died out of the ‘millions’ they falsely claim have died. Not a single name!”