EU boosts funding to fight Ebola

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Parent Category: Africa and The World

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Created on Tuesday, 18 November 2014 00:00

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EU boosts funding to fight Ebola

The European Commission has pledged millions of euros to support three nations which border the countries worst-hit by the Ebola virus. The EU wants to target early intervention.

The EU on Monday announced that Mali, Senegal and Ivory Coast would receive 12 million euros ($15 million) in a bid to stop Ebola spreading there from the worst-affected neighboring nations.

The funding was intended "to help them prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early detection and public awareness measures."

Most cases of Ebola have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to the World Health Organization, 5,177 people have died and about 14,500 have become infected in the latest outbreak of the disease.

On the whole, the European Commission has committed 29 million euros ($37.5 million) to West Africa to fight Ebola. It comes on top of the 1 billion euros previously announced by the European Union.

The remainder of the new funding, 17 million euros, will go toward transporting aid and equipment to the three worst-affected nations and evacuating international aid workers who become infected with Ebola to hospitals in Europe.

The new funding was announced by the European Union's Ebola coordinator, Christos Stylianides, following his trip to the worst-affected countries.

Second US death

Monday's announcement came as US health officials confirmed that Dr. Martin Salia, of Sierra Leone, had died of Ebola at a Nebraska hospital.

The 44-year-old had been flown there over the weekend for treatment.

se/sb (AFP, dpa)

17.11.2014

Source: Deutsche Welle