Bloomberg | “Congo Ebola outbreak tests global response after U.S. aid pullback”

Bloomberg interviewed UCLA Fielding's Dr. Anne Rimoin, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, about the current outbreak of Ebola in Central Africa.

“Global health is perpetually underfunded, and outbreak response is always run on a shoestring,” said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has long worked in Congo. “Ebola containment has always been a global effort. Without U.S. engagement, the burden will fall on fewer partners and that could slow the response and cost lives.”

In past outbreaks, the US provided money and technical expertise through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USAID, training Congolese epidemiologists, bolstering laboratory capacity, and supporting vaccines and therapies. That’s now largely absent, she said.

At the same time, Congo’s own teams have shown strength by sequencing the virus and triggering the response within days, Rimoin said. “It’s heartening to see the excellence with which the DRC team has moved so rapidly to get the critical data out there,” she said.

Read the Bloomberg article.