UN allocates 4 million USD to support Uganda’s Ebola response

United Nations, June 19 (IANS) UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has allocated $4 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the Ugandan government’s response to Ebola, a UN spokesperson said.

The newly-released funding is part of a CERF allocation of up to 60 million dollars announced at the end of May to strengthen the response. The funding will support United Nations operations across 29 districts in Uganda, including refugee-hosting areas, by providing health and logistics assistance, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told a daily briefingm on Thursday.

According to Dujarric, the UN team continues to support Uganda’s Ebola response on multiple fronts. The International Organization for Migration and the UN Development Programme are strengthening screening, surveillance and mobility management at key points of entry, while the UN Children’s Fund is supporting community engagement, risk communication and the continuity of essential services.

In addition, the World Food Programme has delivered more than 6,000 meals to patients, contacts in isolation and frontline health workers, while also ensuring the delivery of critical supplies.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations and its partners delivered over 16 metric tonnes of medical supplies this week. UN partners also established new health screening facilities at the International Airport in Kinshasa to strengthen surveillance, Dujarric said.

Separately, the UN emergency relief coordinator, in consultation with the director-general of the World Health Organization, has designated Julien Harneis as senior Ebola coordinator to strengthen coordination across the response, address operational challenges and help ensure assistance reaches those in need as quickly as possible, according to Dujarric.

Ebola, or Ebola virus disease, is a rare, often fatal hemorrhagic fever caused by orthoebolaviruses. Primarily found in sub-Saharan Africa, it spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected humans or animals, or contaminated surfaces. It has an average fatality rate of roughly 50 per cent.

–IANS

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