Trump secretary Marco Rubio says WHO was slow to identify Ebola outbreak

US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, at a state banquet for Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, on May 14, 2026.
REUTERS/Evan Vucci
United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said on Tuesday (19) that the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN body from which President Donald Trump withdrew the US, was slow to identify the deadly outbreak of Ebola.
When asked by journalists about how the United States will respond to the spread of the disease, Rubio said that leadership of the response will "obviously" be with the CDC, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the WHO.
"The World Health Organization took a while to identify this, unfortunately," he said.
What is known about the Ebola outbreak, declared an international public health emergency
Understand the Ebola epidemic
A WHO said it is evaluating the use of candidate vaccines and treatments already available to contain the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The disease, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, which has been absent for 14 years, is already associated with 131 deaths.
The virus is advancing across the east of the country, with new outbreaks and the infection of a North American doctor, while authorities reinforce prevention measures and foreign governments expand health controls. The disease is spreading mainly in the province of Ituri, in the northeast of the DRC, on the border with Uganda.
The WHO representative in the country stated that a technical advisory group would meet today to formulate new recommendations on the use of immunization agents and experimental therapies.
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Source: G1