After Rubio's critique, WHO defends work on Ebola response

Summary: The World Health Organization (WHO) is defending itself after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agency was too slow to spot a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). WHO leaders explained that their job is to support countries, not take over their health systems. They also pointed out that the U.S. recently cut funding for global health, which makes finding diseases harder.

The outbreak was very tricky to spot because it is a rare type of Ebola called the Bundibugyo strain. The first tests came back negative because they were looking for a more common strain. Samples then had to be sent 1,700 kilometers away to a special lab for better testing. War, remote locations, and early symptoms that look a lot like malaria also caused delays in finding the virus.

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