Trump to Request Over $1.4 Billion in Ebola Funding from Congress

Trump to Request Over $1.4 Billion in Ebola Funding from Congress

In my last report on the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa two weeks ago, I noted that a high court in Kenya had temporarily suspended U.S. plans to establish a quarantine facility in the country due to public health concerns. However, the Trump administration was proceeding with its plans.

The facility has been at the center of demonstrations in Kenya.

It is now being reported that the White House is planning to seek more than $1.4 billion in new funds from Congress to address the widening Ebola outbreak. The request will include funds to support the Kenyan quarantine center.

The request, which is set to be included in a larger supplemental ‌funding request, would include $800 million for ‌humanitarian crisis responses.

That $800 million will fund a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus as ⁠well as ⁠supplies, treatment, contact tracing, a regional logistics network and infection control practices.

U.S. officials ​are also seeking $500 million in global health security funds they say are needed to prevent the virus from spreading to the United States. That funding would include disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, and cross-border coordination, and potential partnerships with multilateral organizations ​and the private sector, the official said.

Another $90 million would go to diplomatic efforts, including evacuations and ⁠transportation ⁠of U.S. citizens with the ⁠virus to treatment ​facilities, according to the official. The funding request was not previously reported.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump to seek more than $1.4 billion in Ebola funding from Congress https://t.co/GeySPbenYF https://t.co/GeySPbenYF

— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2026

As of the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updates, the current Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda has 1114 confirmed cases and 279 deaths.

Currently, medical options for Bundibugyo Ebola are limited because there are no licensed vaccines or proven specific therapies for this rare strain, and even diagnostics and monoclonal antibodies developed for other Ebola types (like Zaire) do not reliably work against it, so care is limited to intensive supportive treatment rather than targeted antiviral intervention.

However, trials of two separate potential treatments to fight this strain in the DRC are slated to begin next week.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that “preparations are now complete for a trial of two therapeutics that’s expected to start in DRC next week.”

The trial, he said, would evaluate whether the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir “can help to reduce mortality in patients with Bundibugyo virus—alone, or in combination.”

Tedros thanked the United States and Gilead Sciences for donating the doses needed for the trial.

The trials will start at a hospital in DRC’s northeastern Ituri province—where the vast majority of cases have been detected—Vasee Moorthy, who leads the WHO’s research and development blueprint arm, told AFP.

A clinical trial to test 2 possible #Ebola therapies will begin in DRC next week. There are currently no licensed vaccines or therapeutics for Bundibugyo ebolavirus. If either or both of these improve survival, that could entice Ebola patients to treatment units.…

— Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 (@HelenBranswell) June 24, 2026

The required number of patients would vary with how promising the therapeutics look: the more effective they seem, the smaller the patient group needed. It is currently estimated that 500-1000 patients would participate in the trial treatments.

Meanwhile, as if France did not have enough problems already, French public health officials announced that they had identified the first case of Ebola in the country, saying that a doctor who had traveled to the DRC had tested positive for the virus.

The humanitarian worker was admitted to a special health care facility and is in stable condition, the health ministry said in a statement. French health workers were racing to trace anyone who may have come in contact with the doctor. Contacts will have to be isolated for 21 days and will be closely monitored, the ministry said.

….The doctor works for the Alliance for International Medical Action, an aid organization known as ALIMA that has been part of the emergency response to the outbreak, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of W.H.O., said in a news conference. The nonprofit has helped in setting up treatment centers, he said.

🇫🇷 France has recorded the first case of Ebola

A doctor who returned from Congo has fallen ill, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

The patient was taken to a specialized facility. He is in stable condition, the ministry reported.

The patient recently arrived from… pic.twitter.com/mFv4eUSRER

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 24, 2026

Taken together, these developments underscore that while the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak remains geographically centered in Central Africa, its consequences are already being felt globally..medically, politically, and diplomatically.

As bureaucrats and global health elites jostle for control, the real measure of success will not be the size of appropriations or the number of press conferences, but whether these efforts actually protect frontline medical personnel and prevent the virus from spreading further.

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