The U.S. State Department pledged another $267 million on Wednesday for the Ebola response in central Africa, raising the Trump administration’s commitment to $886 million. A senior official said the aid would help countries contain the outbreak at its source.
The $886 million commitment includes $107 million from the Department of Health and Human Services, alongside State Department funding. Officials said the assistance could support treatment facilities, diagnostics and medical countermeasures for field health workers. They announced the pledge on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where they hoped other countries would contribute toward a $2 billion target to tackle the disease, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The outbreak was detected in May and is already the second most lethal on record, behind the West African outbreak of 2014 to 2016.
