USG HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO EVD RESPONSE TO DATE IN FY 2014 & 2015

The ceremony was attended by GoL President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Deborah R. Malac, and members of the USG Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). The ETU has an initial capacity of 20 beds, with plans to scale up in the coming weeks. The World Bank announced $100 million in new funding for the EVD response in West Africa on October 30. This additional funding increases total World Bank funding of EVD response activities to more than $500 million. The new funding will help set up a coordination hub to recruit, train, and deploy qualified international health care workers (HCWs). The U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating the path of EVD transmission in each reported EVD case among HCWs, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). WHO plans to conduct infection prevention and control quality assurance checks at every ETU in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to reduce the risk of EVD transmission to HCWs. In Liberia, the U.N. is establishing five regional logistics hubs to increase storage and distribution capacity for the delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies. The U.N. plans to establish the new logistics hubs by the end of November in Bong, Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh, Lofa, and Maryland counties. USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) is supporting John Snow International (JSI) Research and Training Institute with $3.1 million for infection prevention and control training in Liberia to reduce EVD transmission rates in non-EVD care settings. In Sierra Leone, the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) is providing three new laboratories and associated staff, with the first laboratory beginning testing suspected EVD specimens in Kerry Town the week of October 27. The laboratory in Kerry Town doubles Sierra Leone's testing capacity, and health authorities expect testing times to decrease to as little as one day once the laboratories are fully operational.