When the ebola spreads in Uganda, Trump Aid Freeze makes it complex to stop it, American officials are afraid

Ebola’s explosion in Uganda has deteriorated significantly, and the country’s ability to stop the spread was seriously weakened by freezing Trump’s administration in the field of foreign assistance, American officials said this week.

Officials, representing various health agencies and security agencies, made an assessment during a meeting with the staff of the American embassy in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on Wednesday. The Modern York Times audio recording of the session.

According to an American official, an American official said that there were two more deaths, a mother and newborn siblings of a 4-year-old who died last week. Mother and siblings died earlier than a 4-year-old, but were not identified as likely cases of ebola until they were buried by tardy contact.

Until now, eighty -two people have been identified as close to mother’s contacts and her two children, exposed to infection, and 68 of them are now in quarantine, while the others are still being followed. Officials have found that the ability of public healthcare employees to follow contacts and supervise in fresh matters is seriously complex without the aid of the US.

Two contacts are already symptomatic and have been admitted to the ward in an insulation hospital, said an American official in Uganda at a meeting. The 4-year-old was taken to treatment in four different healthcare facilities before diagnosing Ebola, which means that many of those who were potentially exposed to the virus are health care employees.

During Wednesday, American officials said that the government in Uganda also lacked enough laboratory stocks, diagnostic equipment and protective equipment for medical workers and people who follow contacts. One of the officials said that the solution of a subsidy from the American International Development Agency hindered the possibility of obtaining these stocks. The meeting, conducted by the video, was attended by representatives of the State Department, USAID, Department of Defense, US Embassy in Uganda and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Asked for a comment on the fears expressed at the meeting, the spokesman for the State Department sent a message e -mail with information that the US government cooperates with Uganda and other partners “to quickly conclude this explosion and identify developing needs.” The cooperation of both governments said: “Until now, it minimized the impact of this explosion on American citizens.”

The explosion was caused by the Ebola Virus strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Until now, it caused four deaths, 12 confirmed cases and two suspicious infections. Public health experts claim that it can be much worse without appropriate control resources.

Africa Center for Disease Control he said On Thursday, that in the cluster he includes a 4-year-old, three confirmed and two likely. Although these cases were far from primary, genomic sequencing suggested that the same virus caused fresh.

The explosion was announced on January 30, after the death of a 32-year-old nurse in Kampali, who was looking for care in many main hospitals across the country, and also consulted with a time-honored healer in the eastern MBale district.

It was the first time the first case was identified in the capital, which has a population of about six million people, pushing additional challenges related to restriction and increasing significant concerns about the potential of the virus to quickly spread to densely populated urban areas. At the meeting. American officials expressed the concern that in Kampala there was no investigation into non -rual death in order to determine whether more could be caused by Ebola.

Dr. Herbert Luswata, president of Uganda Medical Association, said that Ebola’s response was seriously hindered by the lack of US support and that the Uganda health care system was much less prepared and responsive than during the last Ebola explosion, in 2022.

He said that dozens of medical workers enlisted to treat patients in 2022. Now the lack of funds and deficiencies of protective equipment meant that many were afraid of aid this time, especially in high -risk insulation units.

In the current explosion, he said: “Without money, USAID and CDC knowledge, it was as if Uganda was died.”

This week, the United Nations Organization started an emergency appeal To collect $ 11.2 million to aid Ugandza stop the ebol explosion, because the US AID limits the nation’s health budget.

On February 26, Elon Musk told the members of the office that after the “accidental” cancellation of support to stop Ebola, his team in the government department “immediately restored Ebola’s prevention and there was no break.” However, four out of five Ebola’s work contracts were actually cut off.

Two were now restored, a member of the embassy told his colleagues during a meeting on Wednesday, but two that were not restored are “most USAID aid” – $ 1.6 million from $ 2.2 million.

At the meeting, a member of the USAID staff introduced himself, saying that he took over the emergency explosion act after his predecessor was on administrative leave. He said: “Our goal is to get an answer about the critical awards that we will pay, we are working on it, but we don’t have any solid updates now.”

One of the officials expressed concern about the regional supervision of diseases for which critical support in the US was completed last week.

“In the case of the order of detention and rewards, there is no longer programming, so future prospects are now disturbing and this is what we hear from regional groups of readiness,” she said.

Then another official jumped into the conversation to say that there is a massive reason for concern, taking into account the other outbreaks of the region’s disease – including one of Marburg’s diseases, another viral hemorrhagic fever – and his significant movement of people within land borders.

None of the cases in the fresh cluster of infection and deaths of Ebola has been identified as contacts from original cases, emphasizing the weakness of the current supervisory system.

From the very beginning, the declaration of this explosion of Ebola has rattled medical workers throughout the country.

In the Regional Hospital of the MBALE Recommendation, where the nurse in the first identified case sought medical assistance, doctors complained about a shortage of supply to reduce the risk of exposure and transmission, including masks, manual disinfectants, gloves, face shield and thermometers. Many refused to participate in patients until they received very necessary preventive materials.

According to two doctors working in the hospital, there were no funds for at least two days to implement the supervisory system or effectively track contacts in mbale.

Although there are no approved vaccines for this Ebola strain, two experimental vaccines were placed in Uganda, and more than 250 contacts of infected people were vaccinated.

But even when they try to stop the outbreak, health officials hesitated to impose solemn restrictions due to long -term anger from the funds introduced during the pandemic due to Covid. Tourist officials also called on the government so that it would not limit their journey for fear that it would be tenth workplaces.

Non -information on the subject of Ebola persists among society, and many perceive the explosion as a tactic of securing foreign assistance or consolidation of the adhesion of the ruling party as the election season begins. Doctors in Kampali also criticized the Ministry of Health of the country and its partners for less transparency of information during this explosion of Ebola compared to the previous ones.

Uganda’s government rejected the accusations that his efforts to the reaction of Ebola were complex, calling them “unfounded”. Henry Kyobe Bos, an epidemiologist supervising the reaction of the Ebola of the Ministry of Health, said that the authorities quickly detected cases, identified contacts and placed them in quarantine. He added that close contacts were added to lists without fate to prevent them from leaving the country.

“We worked on pursuit,” Bosa said in an interview. “We have it at the very beginning.”