As the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda escalated into a WHO-declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern, international media including NDTV reported on how the United States' withdrawal from global health leadership has directly undermined outbreak detection and response.

Experts quoted in international coverage pointed to the dramatic reduction in U.S. humanitarian funding in Congo — from over $900 million in the final year of the Biden administration to approximately $179 million under the Trump administration, a drop of nearly 80%. Aid workers who previously served as an early warning system for unusual disease clusters in conflict regions have largely disappeared from the field.

BioRadar Co-Founder Dr. Nikki Romanik and her co-author Dr. Stephanie Psaki addressed exactly this dynamic in their June 2025 piece in Just Security, warning that dismantling CDC's global programs eliminates America's first line of defense against biological threats. BioRadar Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Ashish Jha echoed those concerns in multiple media appearances, warning that the numbers being reported could make this "one of the 10 biggest Ebola outbreaks in history" and calling for an immediate surge of resources into the affected region.

The outbreak and the international response to it underscore the core mission behind BioRadar — building the detection infrastructure that ensures the United States is never again caught unprepared when a biological threat emerges.

Read the NDTV coverage