DAKAR, May 28 (Reuters) - Funding pledges to contain the fast-growing Ebola outbreak in Africa have almost halved since Monday, the continent's main health body said on Thursday. The World Health ​Organization has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo ​strain of ⁠Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern.

More than 223 people are suspected to have died from the outbreak in DRC and Uganda. The World Health Organization has warned the epidemic will get worse before it gets better.

Aid supplies have been rushed in to the center of Congo's Ebola outbreak where medical workers are struggling with equipment shortages, distrustful locals and armed groups.

The risk to Americans right now is low, but sweeping cuts to public health infrastructure present challenges to handling infectious disease threats at home and abroad

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls for ceasefire among armed groups to help avoid deaths from preventable disease

“Spain reported a new case among the passengers who are in quarantine, which brings the total number of cases to 13,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X. Among them three died, but there have been no new deaths since May 2, Ghebreyesus said.

John F. Kennedy International Airport will become one of four airports that will screen passengers traveling from three African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak​.

The Ebola virus disease outbreak rapidly spreading through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and into Uganda could become the “deadliest on record” without urgent action, warns aid agency International Rescue Committee (IRC).