EU to grants US $574,350 to fight Ebola

The EU has decided to grant the Republic of Congo (ROC) 328 million francs CFA (US $574,350) to help fight the deadly Ebola virus in the country's northern region of Cuvette-Ouest, Eric Holzaphel, the EU representative in Brazzaville, said on Thursday. The grant will enable the EU to set up an administrative committee to fight the epidemic, improve health facilities, provide medicines, create isolation wards and protection for medical staff, and set up an epidemiological surveillance unit. Some 100 of the 110 people who contracted the Ebola virus have died. The World Health Organisation says the haemorrhagic fever is "one of the most virulent" viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50 percent to 90 percent of all clinically diagnosed cases. The ROC authorities were first alerted to a possible outbreak of Ebola after a band of gorillas in the area began dying in late 2002. Tests subsequently carried out on corpses confirmed that they had died of Ebola. The current outbreak is believed to have been caused by villagers eating infected primates.