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(Bloomberg Opinion) – In 2014, the United States took the lead in government efforts to stem the largest Ebola outbreak, which claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people in West Africa before it will be declared end of mid-2016. Today, a smaller but more complex epidemic is raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the US response has been shaped by indifference and bureaucratic bargaining. The consequences are potentially disastrous, not just for those who are immediately in danger.
Why the latest Ebola outbreak raises fears
So far, nearly 2,700 cases have been reported and nearly 1,800 have died. Uganda has identified three cases near its border with the DRC and two others have been reported in Goma, a city of more than two million inhabitants that has a busy border with Rwanda and an international airport. . The chief medical officer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently declared before a Senate committee: "The epidemic is not under control". Last week, the World Health Organization said it would require $ 324 million to fight the disease over the next six months. , about three times more than what was given.
President Donald Trump has not reacted urgently. (No big surprise: during the West Africa epidemic in 2014, he blamed President Barack Obama for sending American staff, saying that "the president should perhaps put all Africans on Obamacare rather than send troops. ") His administration eliminated the global security security portfolio of the National Security Council and announced the intention to withdraw $ 252 million of the remaining funds from the Ebola virus the day after the beginning of the new epidemic. Fortunately, funding has changed and Congress has reinstated funding for many of its planned cuts to global health spending.
Now the United States is reluctant to grant a waiver to the Congo under the Protection of Victims of Trafficking Act to allow it to obtain tens of millions of dollars to facilitate the response. Despite requests from the World Health Organization, the State Department has still not allowed CDC staff to visit the field, citing security concerns. (Non-governmental organization staff already face many of the same risks.)
The epidemic is likely to spread into crowded urban areas in the heart of Africa. If this eventuality is unconvincing, there is also a risk for the United States. Regional turmoil widens the net of Congolese refugees arriving on the southern border. The United States should lift restrictions on aid, as Senator Bob Menendez has asked, and help the CDC deploy its expertise. This should spur a new global effort – a partnership for this purpose with China, Congo's biggest foreign investor.
Admittedly, this emergency presents serious difficulties. It touched provinces in the grip of violence by dozens of militias. More than 15 years after the "World War in Africa" cost millions of lives, the DRC still hosts the largest UN peacekeeping mission. The affected provinces have also been victims of official neglect and repression. Public mistrust is so intense that some people consider Ebola a fraud or a conspiracy of the government. Stakeholders and health facilities were attacked.
This underscores the need to combine an effective emergency response with stronger pressure for political reform and better governance. Increased support for the United Nations peacekeeping mission would be helpful; the reflexive effort of the administration to put an end to it will not do it. Senator Lindsey Graham called the new outbreak a "case study – Exhibit A – explaining why you can not withdraw from the world". He is right. The United States can not solve Congo's problems, but they can not afford to ignore them either.
– Editors: James Gibney, Clive Crook
To contact the editor of Bloomberg editorials Opinion: David Shipley at [email protected] ,.
The editorials are written by the Editorial Board of Bloomberg Opinion.
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