By Aaron Ross
Aug 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Wednesday nearly doubled its financial commitment to the Ebola response in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, announcing plans to provide an additional $242 million to combat the second-largest outbreak of the disease in history.
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State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters that the money would fund up to six months of activity and bring the total amount of direct U.S. assistance to $512 million.
Aid officials have described the outbreak as the fastest-spreading Ebola epidemic ever due to its delayed detection, surveillance system gaps, armed conflict in eastern Congo and the absence of vaccines and treatments for the strain of the virus that is circulating.
French medical charity MSF said in a statement on Wednesday that the situation in eastern Congo was “more critical than ever”, noting that more than five times as many deaths have been recorded in the 11 weeks since the outbreak was declared than during the same period of the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa that went on to kill over 11,000 people.
OUTBREAK COULD BE MUCH LARGER THAN OFFICIAL FIGURES
As of Tuesday, Congo had confirmed 3,874 cases and 1,751 deaths, according to government data. The World Health Organization said last month that the true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official data suggest because of gaps in the system for detecting cases and for contact tracing.
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The U.S. has been the largest contributor to the international Ebola response. It says its funding has supported more than 180 health facilities in areas affected by the disease and procured and distributed nearly 300 tons of critical supplies.
“While we recognize that the road ahead is long and challenging, the United States’ support has unquestionably stopped this outbreak from being worse,” Pigott said.
International aid officials have criticised the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for aid cuts before the outbreak, including the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, that they say left first responders ill-prepared to detect and respond to the Ebola crisis.
Pigott said it was false to claim those moves hampered the response and that moving U.S. foreign assistance activities under the State Department had actually made it more efficient.
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(Reporting by Aaron Ross in Nairobi; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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