China sends additional $32.5 million Ebola aid
September 13, 2014, 9:49 am

The death toll has risen to more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases says WHO [Xinhua]

The aid will include food, supplies for disease control, emergency treatment facilities, and capital support, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

This is in addition to the humanitarian aid of 30 million yuan sent by Beijing to the four worts-affected West African countries last month.

China will also promote long-term medical cooperation with African countries, to help them raise their disease control and response abilities and improve public health infrastructure.

As of Saturday, 4784 cases, resulting in 2400 deaths, had been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.

The Liberian Defense Minister Brownie Samukai told the UN Security Council late on Tuesday that his country is facing an existential threat as Ebola appears to be spreading out of control in the country.

Song Shuli, spokesperson of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), said at a press conference on Thursday in Beijing that no Ebola cases have been reported in China so far.

BRICS countries have said there were no reported cases of Ebola in the five nations so far, although authorities are on high alert. A South African woman who was quarantined overnight in Nigeria on Thursday as a suspected Ebola case has tested negative for the disease.

With large population of BRICS workers in the four affected West African nations, the risk to countries like China and India from the virus remains high. The bloc’s engagement with African nations, including the four that have been badly hit, is substantial.

The Ebola virus, also referred to as Ebola hemorrhagic fever because of one of its most visible symptoms, is an incurable disease with a very high fatality rate. It was first identified in 1976.

 Source: Agencies