US pledges extra $267m to fight Ebola as Congo outbreak becomes second deadliest on record
Washington announces an additional $267 million for the Ebola response in the DRC on the UN General Assembly sidelines, taking total US assistance to $887 million as the outbreak becomes the second deadliest on record.
The United States has pledged an additional $267 million to fight the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the State Department announced on Wednesday.
The money was announced on the sidelines of the high-level week of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. It will fund new Ebola treatment units, safe and dignified burial teams, mass procurement of protective equipment, expanded surveillance, critical health commodities and contact tracing, the department said in a media note.
The pledge takes total US assistance for the outbreak to $887 million — more than $780 million of it from the State Department — making Washington the largest single donor. Reuters, reporting the same announcement, put the total at $886 million, including $107 million from the Department of Health and Human Services. Senior State Department officials said they hoped other nations would contribute toward a $2 billion funding target.
The outbreak, first detected in May, is already the second most lethal Ebola epidemic on record, behind only the 2014–2016 West African crisis, Reuters reported. Congolese health officials have recorded 3,639 deaths and 7,541 infections, according to figures reported by AFP.
The State Department said the new funding fulfils a US commitment made at the G7 leaders’ summit to provide up to an additional $500 million for the response. It added that Washington mobilised assistance within 48 hours of the first cases being reported in May — its fastest-ever response to an Ebola outbreak.
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