USAID Provides $8 Million to Combat Ebola in Congo

The U.S. Agency for International Development will contribute at least $8 million to combat the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar announced today in a speech to the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. The DRC government has reported 46 Ebola cases and 26 deaths since April, including four confirmed cases in the city of Mbandaka. The 2018 International Health Regulations Emergency Committee for Ebola Virus Disease Friday determined that the event currently does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern. Assisted by the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners, the African nation yesterday began offering health workers and other high-risk populations an experimental vaccine that was highly protective against the virus in a large 2015 trial in Guinea.