Japan to Allocate Additional $8.5Mln to Contain Ebola Virus

The money will be given to the WHO and the WFP to assist in the delivery of 700,000 personal protective equipment packages for health personnel and provide technical support to tackle the virus threat.

MOSCOW, December 9 (Sputnik) — Japan has announced an additional $8.5 million in assistance to Ebola-stricken West African nations, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The money will be given to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Program (WFP) to assist in the delivery of 700,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) packages for health personnel and provide technical support to tackle the virus threat, the press release of the Foreign Ministry said.

In November, the Japanese government announced that it would allocate $100 million to help international organizations combat the deadly Ebola virus outbreak. The promised aid is in addition to the $40 million that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged at the UN General Assembly in September.

Besides financial aid, Japan is also testing vaccines against the deadly disease. In particular, a drug called Avigan Tablet (Favipiravir). It could be effective against the virus as it has so far showed positive results during clinical trials. It is expected that the international license signaling the drugs readiness to be used on patients could be granted as early as January 2015.

The current Ebola outbreak started in southern Guinea at the end of 2013 and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal, with several Ebola cases having been reported in the United States and Europe.

According to the WHO data, there have been 17,800 cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD), with 6,331 reported deaths.

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