THERE is a myth that ostriches bury their heads in the sand when threatened. The United States is like the mythical ostrich in its response to the current Ebola outbreak. The hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship was like a dress rehearsal. It showed the consequences of dismantling global pandemic preparedness. That rehearsal is over. The far more dangerous Ebola act has begun, and the curtain has risen in Central Africa. Of course, the Ebola outlook has become far more dangerous due to the war going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the M23 "rebel group", funded and supported by Rwanda, the darling of the US and the UK earlier. With documented records of continuing atrocities, the Western powers have publicly cooled towards Rwanda.

POLITICS OF EBOLA

On 17th May 2026, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) due to the Ebola Disease outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus (BDV), a species in the Ebola virus group. The cross-border outbreak started in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and has now spilt over to Uganda. The WHO has noted that the outbreak does not yet meet pandemic criteria, but experts warn that it could change rapidly. As of 25 May 2026, more than 230 people have died, and there were over 900 suspected cases. The WHO warns that the spread is outpacing response efforts, and the numbers could be much higher.

As an earlier article in this column on 17 May 2026  noted, the US has pulled out of the WHO and gutted its scientific agencies.

On May 17, an American who was exposed as part of work caring for patients in DRC tested positive for Ebola Bundibugyo disease. The patient has been transported to Germany for treatment and care. In addition to a shorter flight time, Germany has previous experience caring for Ebola patients. High-risk contacts associated with this exposure have been moved to Germany and the Czech Republic. The US announced it was building a facility in Kenya to quarantine and treat Americans who are suspected of or confirmed to have contracted Ebola. This contrasts with US policy in previous Ebola outbreaks, when US citizens suspected of having Ebola were flown back to the US for treatment. The US has also banned green card holders who have recently travelled to DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan from returning to the US. This is not solidarity. It is medical apartheid—a policy that treats disease as a foreign threat to be segregated and kept out, rather than a shared vulnerability to be addressed collectively. In the past week, the situation has deteriorated further. According to a CNN report dated 25 May 2026, key officials leading US research on infectious disease threats at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have been barred from speaking directly with the WHO unless authorised by senior staff. This is not merely a funding cut; it is a gag order on science.

This Ebola outbreak is even more political than it appears. Africa consistently receives the worst treatment in global news coverage: when the continent is covered at all, it is typically through a lens of disasters, pity, fear, or blame. Equally invisible is the connection between disease and war. In eastern DRC, armed groups control vast territories, and conflict has displaced millions. The same roads that carry armed fighters also carry sick people fleeing violence. You cannot contain a virus when a militia checkpoint blocks you from reaching the patient. Yet the Western press focuses on border closures and the US evacuation plans for its citizens rather than on the fact that war is the virus's greatest ally.

UNDERSTANDING EBOLA

The Ebola virus is a filovirus, reflecting its distinctive elongated thread-like shape. It carries single-stranded RNA and mutates easily.  Bundibugyo and the Marburg virus are both a part of the filovirus family. It spreads by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. As with all membrane-enveloped viruses, detergents and ordinary soap destroy the virus. Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) caused by all related species of the Ebola virus is a severe, often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms typically appear abruptly, between 2 and 21 days after exposure to the virus. Early flu-like symptoms are followed by severe stomach, intestinal, and blood vessel problems. Without treatment, EVD is frequently fatal, with death usually occurring due to severe dehydration and multi-organ failure caused by fluid loss, rather than direct blood loss. The current outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD).  According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), no vaccines or specific treatments have been approved to prevent or treat BVD. Early supportive care improves survival rates, but the two approved vaccines—Ervebo and Zabdeno/Mvabea—as well as the therapeutics Inmazeb and Ebanga, are all specific to the Ebola Zaire species that caused the first identified outbreak in 1976. That virus was at that time named after the Ebola River in the DRC (then Zaire), near the site of the first outbreak—a deliberate choice to avoid stigmatising a local village. Today, that choice is a quaint historical footnote, as entire nations are now being stigmatised through travel bans.

Ebola has been stalking mankind since 1976. The 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak sickened more than 28,000 and killed more than 11,000. The DRC outbreak of 2018-2020 killed nearly 2,300. Jeremy Konyndyk, who led the US government's response to the 2014–2016 outbreak, now warns that this one "is going to be exceptionally difficult to contain". Why? The challenge is exacerbated by global cuts to aid and ongoing armed conflict in the region, as well as the fact that most suspected cases are women and girls, who need a gender-specific response. Also, last year, the U.S. cut 90 per cent of USAID funding—reportedly eliminating nearly 10,000 health projects worldwide.

In India, a man in Ahmedabad, who returned from Africa on 27 May 2026, developed symptoms and was suspected of Ebola. A woman coming from Uganda was placed under quarantine in Bengaluru. Following the WHO declaration, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a Standard Operating Procedure for airlines mandating the filing of the sick persons list, announcements regarding symptoms of Ebola, isolation of suspected persons and transfer to hospitals. India has also sent emergency medical supplies to the DRC. Rapid testing capacity for Ebola is still not available in most state capitals. This is a gap that must be filled urgently.

THE WAY OUT

We have learnt time and again that pathogens do not need a passport. We learned this in 2020 with COVID-19 and the Hantavirus aboard the vessel MV Honduras, which reminds us once again that pathogens do not heed national boundaries. Climate change is driving infectious agents and their animal hosts out of their natural habitats, as detailed in many research and popular publications, including the journal 'Nature Review Biodiversity'. Our warming planet is increasingly "hospitable" to new and deadly microbes. The next pandemic is not merely a remote possibility. The likelihood of a pandemic is much higher than before, given the global nature of travel and interactions in enclosed spaces. 

To avert catastrophe, we need to go the opposite way from what is happening now. Countries of the Global South need greater control and increased funding for institutions like the World Health Organisation, to ensure better coordination of existing capacities. The WHO has to act through national infrastructures, supplementing them when they are weak. Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health must be able to share mRNA genomic sequences with counterparts in Dhaka, Kinshasa, and Kampala without seeking political clearance. The problem is the complete politicisation of science in the US, with a bunch of white supremacists thinking science is a woke conspiracy. The anti-science governments are building walls, cutting funds, and silencing experts.

Ebola is not cruel. It is simply RNA in a protein coat, doing what viruses do. The cruelty lies in our response. Leaders are choosing competition over the cooperation that survival demands. And that choice—made in comfortable offices far from the outbreak zones—will be paid for in lives by ordinary people who had no say in the matter.