U.N. Leaders Call For Additional International Support For DRC Ebola Response After Case Detected In Border City; U.K. Urges Other Governments To Step Up As U.S., E.U. Promise Increased Contributions

Associated Press: The Latest: U.S., E.U. promise support to tackle Ebola
“The top U.S. diplomat in Geneva says the United States will ‘provide more in the coming months’ to help respond to the Ebola outbreak, while the European Union ambassador says the bloc will examine possibilities to scale up its response. U.S. Charge d’Affaires Mark Cassayre also told a U.N. conference on Ebola Monday that the United States is calling on member states to increase their contributions to the response, which the World Health Organization says is underfunded. E.U. Ambassador Walter Stevens noted that the bloc has provided some $20 million in support since last year, plus in-kind and logistical support, and ‘will look into possibilities to scale up the response’…” (7/15).

New York Times: Ebola Outbreak Reaches Major City in Congo, Renewing Calls for Emergency Order
“… ‘The identification of the case in Goma could potentially be a game-changer in this epidemic,’ said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, speaking on Monday in Geneva at a high-level United Nations meeting about the outbreak. He called Goma ‘a gateway to the region and the world.’ Because of the Goma case, Dr. Tedros said he would once again convene a WHO committee to decide whether it is time to declare the epidemic a ‘public health emergency of international concern,’ which could draw more international help to the region. This would be the fourth meeting of the committee, which has declined three times to declare an emergency and has drawn sharp criticism from many public health experts…” (Grady, 7/15).

Reuters: Britain tells Canada and France to pull their weight on Ebola
“Britain’s International Development Minister Rory Stewart called on France and Canada on Monday to offer more help in tackling the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo. Stewart, who visited the Ebola zone earlier this month, told a U.N. meeting that Britain had donated $45 million towards a previous Ebola outbreak and the current one, and that he had authorized a further $63 million of British spending. … The United States, Britain, and Germany had all donated generously, but other members of the G7 group of countries needed to do more, Stewart said…” (Miles, 7/15).

U.N. News: ‘We won’t get to zero cases of Ebola without a big scale-up in funding,’ U.N. relief chief warns
“Deadly attacks on health workers in Ebola-hit areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including one at the weekend that left two dead, are an indication that combating the disease outbreak will require far greater international support, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said on Monday. Speaking in Geneva, Mr. Lowcock, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, insisted on the need to ‘be honest with ourselves’ on tackling the hemorrhagic disease … unless there’s a big scale-up in the response, we’re unlikely to be successful in getting to zero cases.’ … Since the latest Ebola outbreak was officially declared in the eastern DRC provinces of North Kivu and Ituri last August, there have been more than 2,400 confirmed and probable cases and 1,647 deaths, according to latest data from the country’s authorities…” (7/15).

Additional coverage of the DRC Ebola outbreak and response is available from Al Jazeera, Becker’s Hospital Review, CNN, Deutsche Welle, Devex (2), Reuters (2), SciDev.Net, Science Speaks, The Telegraph, VOA News, and Xinhua News.

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