Ebola Outbreak in Central Africa Worsened by Misinformation, Funding Cuts

A large Ebola outbreak in central Africa is spreading, and misinformation about the virus is making matters worse.

Rumors on social media claim that Ebola is not real or that health care workers are out to profit for themselves.

More than 1,000 suspected and confirmed cases have been recorded, with at least 223 deaths suspected of being caused by Ebola, according to the World Health Organization. Health workers say that's likely a major undercount.

The epicenter of the outbreak is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Uganda, which borders the DRC, has so far been spared the worst of the outbreak. On May 27, the country closed its official border crossings with Congo.

"We still have a number of porous border points … whereby people continue to cross over," said Leonard Musinguzi. He's a community and surveillance officer for the International Rescue Committee in Uganda.

Musinguzi's job is to track likely cases of Ebola, quarantine refugees, train healthcare workers and prepare his community to battle the disease.

That's an uphill battle, especially because wrong information about Ebola can spread even faster than a virus.

One of the ways Musinguzi tries to combat that misinformation is public health messaging. His organization distributes radio spots, posters, and information on hospital televisions meant to educate about the disease.

However, governments like the United States have cut back their support for programs like the IRC's. That means Musinguzi has less money for the projects he wants to do.

Before, he might have paid to place educational messages during five radio talk shows. Now, he said, "because of this reduced funding, you only have one."

In a statement to NPR, the State Department said recent federal funding changes did not have any significant effect on U.S. funding levels for global health programs or health security programs in the eastern DRC.

Spokesman Tommy Pigott said, "the United States responded within 24 hours of the first confirmed case, mobilizing a wide range of medical, humanitarian, operational, and consular resources to rapidly respond to the Ebola outbreak."

NPR's Adrian Florido spoke with aid workers and a former United States Agency for International Development employee to learn more about the pressures facing the global health system, and how federal government cuts may have contributed.

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