UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2021) UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said on Tuesday he decided to allocate $15 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (UNCERF) to respond to the resurgence of Ebola in West and Central Africa.
"Today, I am allocating $15 million from the UNCERF to respond to the Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the DRC [the Democratic Republic of the Congo]," Lowcock said via Twitter. "The funding will help these countries respond to the outbreak and support neighboring countries to prepare."
On Sunday, Guinea's health authorities reported an outbreak of Ebola in the Goueke sub-prefecture, located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Nzerekore, the country's second-largest city. This is the first time since 2016 that Ebola has been detected in the country.
Earlier this month, the DRC also reported a new infection in the city of Butembo, located in the north-east. The case resulted in a fatality of a farmer, who was hospitalized with the virus symptoms after his spouse survived hemorrhagic fever.
The Ebola virus is transmitted from human to human via contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. The World Health Organization estimates it to have a 50 percent fatality rate. More than 11,000 people in Guinea died during the worst-ever Ebola outbreak in history between 2014-2016.
