The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Africa could become a major regional pandemic, according to the former CDC director.
“I suspect this is going to become a very significant pandemic,” Dr. Robert Redfield told NewsNation. “[It will] probably leak into Tanzania, leak into South Sudan, maybe leak into Rwanda.”
“This is an outbreak right now that is really a significant outbreak that’s of significant public health international concern…it wasn’t recognized very quickly. I’m not sure why,” Redfield added, saying the spread “really wasn’t picked up until there was over 100 cases.”
The outbreak, thought to have begun in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has likely already killed more than 130 people.
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern over the weekend, but not a pandemic emergency.
“Investigations are ongoing to ascertain when and where exactly this outbreak started,” Anais Legand, WHO technical officer for viral threats, told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
“Given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago.”
The first suspected Ebola death was reported on April 20.
The rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is driving the outbreak. The strain, for which no vaccine exists, has an average fatality rate of about 40 percent, according to the WHO.
Trump administration foreign aid and health cuts may have contributed to the relatively slow detection of the outbreak.
“Funding cuts have left the region dangerously exposed,” Heather Reoch Kerr, the International Rescue Committee’s Congo country director, told Politico on Tuesday. “The sharp rise in reported cases over the last few days reflects the reality that surveillance systems are now catching up with transmission that has likely been occurring for some time.”
March 2025 funding cuts forced the group to more than halve its health and preparedness work in the Ituri Province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
U.S. officials say they are supporting the withdrawal of a small group of Americans impacted by the outbreak. A handful of Americans in the country are thought to have been exposed to suspected cases.
“To date, no Ebola cases associated with this outbreak have been reported in the United States, and the risk to the general public remains low,” according to the CDC.
