The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says the European Commission has allocated €17.5 million to support ongoing efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Africa CDC disclosed this in a post on its official X account on Tuesday.
According to the agency, its Director-General, Jean Kaseya, received the European Union Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, during a meeting focused on the Ebola response and broader African Union-European Union health cooperation.
“The @EU_Commission reaffirmed its strong support to Africa CDC by allocating 17.5 million euro to support the Ebola response.
“We thank the EU for this timely and concrete support,” Mr Kaseya was quoted as saying.
Africa CDC said Mr Kaseya also reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to coordinated action with partners to strengthen preparedness, surveillance and response efforts across the continent.
Meanwhile, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) over the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda followed procedures outlined in the International Health Regulations (IHR).
The procedures are outlined in the International Health Regulations (IHR).
Similarly, WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, told the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva that the declaration was issued under Article 12 of the IHR due to growing concerns about the outbreak.
“On 18 May, I declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern for an Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda.
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“This is the first time a Director-General has declared a PHEIC before convening an Emergency Committee,” Mr Ghebreyesus said.
He added that the committee would meet to consider temporary recommendations on the rapidly expanding outbreak.
“It was done under Article 12 of the IHR after consulting both health ministers, due to concerns over the scale and speed of the epidemic,” he said.
(NAN)
