Balance of Power

Ebola Spread Shows Deadly Cost of Aid Retreat

The Bundibugyo strain may have circulated undetected for weeks in northeastern Congo.
A health official checks a visitor’s temperature at the entrance of a hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 17.Photographer: Jospin Mwisha/AFP/Getty Images

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The Ebola outbreak spreading across Democratic Republic of Congo and into neighboring Uganda is fast becoming an early test of what a retreat in Western health funding might mean for global pandemic preparedness.