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US to provide $50 million more in funding to counter Ebola outbreak

By Reuters Reuters
Workers set up structures inside the perimeter barrier erected around a restricted Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) emergency isolation zone designated for suspected Ebola patients, at the General Referral Hospital, as aid agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, in Mongbwalu, Djugu Territory of Ituri province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, June 4, 2026. REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere
Workers set up structures inside the perimeter barrier erected around a restricted Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) emergency isolation zone designated for suspected Ebola patients, at the General Referral Hospital, as aid agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, in Mongbwalu, Djugu Territory of Ituri province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, June 4, 2026. REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere Gradel Muyisa Mumbere Reuters

The United States plans to provide $50 million in funding to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to develop medical countermeasures to target the rare strain of Ebola causing the current outbreak in Africa, the State Department said in a statement on Friday.

The funding will support laboratory studies and clinical trials of, as well as manufacturing for, medical countermeasure candidates for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. The new investment brings the State Department's total direct funding of the Ebola response to $270 million, it said.

CEPI said it has already committed over $60 million to support a portfolio of four vaccine candidates under development, and is evaluating other options.

"With no licensed vaccines against Bundibugyo virus, we must move at speed. This funding will help CEPI accelerate the development of life-saving countermeasures to control this outbreak and strengthen the world's defenses against future Bundibugyo virus epidemics," Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI said in a statement.

As of Friday, the Democratic Republic ​of Congo had reported 676 confirmed cases and 136 deaths in an outbreak that has ⁠also spread ​to neighboring Uganda, which has reported 19 cases. The disease went undetected for weeks and first responders say they are playing catch-up.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Chizu Nomiyama)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 11:27 AM.

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