US pledges additional $50m in funding to counter Ebola

The US plans to provide $50 million in funding to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to develop medical countermeasures to target the rare strain of Ebola causing the current outbreak in Africa, the State Department said in a statement on Friday.

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The funding will support laboratory studies and clinical trials of, as well as manufacturing for, medical countermeasure candidates for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola. The new investment brings the State Department's total direct funding of the Ebola response to $270 million, it said.

CEPI said it has already committed over $60 million to support a portfolio of four vaccine candidates under development, and is evaluating other options.

“With no licensed vaccines against Bundibugyo virus, we must move at speed. This funding will help CEPI accelerate the development of life-saving countermeasures to control this outbreak and strengthen the world’s defenses against future Bundibugyo virus epidemics,” Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI said in a statement.

As of Friday, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in Democratic Republic of Congo has increased to 689, including 139 deaths in an outbreak that has also spread to neighbouring Uganda, which has reported 19 cases.

The disease went undetected for weeks and first responders say they are playing catch-up.

The number represented the total number of confirmed cases as of Thursday, according to a situation report that documented 17 new cases in the previous 24 hours, all in Ituri province where the first cases were recorded.