Former USAID Ebola adviser says lessons from 2014 are fading as new outbreak spreads in DRC and Uganda

In October 2014 Susan Reichle served as a counselor to USAID in Washington, D.C., when the CDC launched its largest ever Ebola response.

She contrasts that crisis with the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, noting that the 2014 epidemic began with just 49 confirmed cases and took two‑and‑a‑half months to reach 300, whereas the new flare‑up had hundreds of suspected cases before the CDC intervened and hit 300 confirmed cases within two weeks.

Reichle warns that the absence of a strong USAID role means many lessons learned in 2014 are being forgotten, potentially hampering the effectiveness of the present response.

She also points out that the security environment is far more hazardous now, with over 120 armed groups operating in the DRC, making it riskier for international health workers than the West African settings of 2014.