The World Bank announced on Tuesday, 13 October, additional financing of $93 million to strengthen the response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and health preparedness in eleven exposed countries in the region.
An envelope of $80 million is to support the Congolese national response, while $13 million is earmarked for neighbouring countries and regional institutions. These two tranches bring the total World Bank Group commitments against the outbreak to $426.6 million, combining new and existing financing, grants and concessional resources.
The $80 million is to finance surveillance, laboratories, patient care, infection prevention and community mobilisation. The World Bank says the programme has already delivered 104 diagnostic platforms, 70,000 tests and 340 tonnes of medicines and medical supplies. It also says detection time has been cut from ten days at the start of the outbreak to one or two days in September.
The financing comes as the dashboard of the National Institute of Public Health and the National Institute for Biomedical Research recorded 9,066 confirmed cases and 4,381 deaths as of 11 October. Congolese data show a mortality rate close to half of confirmed cases. The World Health Organization had counted 8,728 cases and 4,205 deaths as of 6 October, across 64 health zones in seven provinces.
The regional tranche of $13 million is to strengthen laboratories, surveillance and digital screening at points of entry. It will be channelled through the Regional Preparedness and Resilience Programme for Health Emergencies and is to support the work of Africa CDC, the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
The risk of spread beyond DRC materialised in early October. WHO confirmed that a patient infected in DRC had travelled through Uganda before being hospitalised in Kenya, where he died on 5 October. Kenyan and Ugandan authorities have begun contact tracing.
The World Bank also plans to use these resources to maintain maternal and child health services in Ituri, protect livelihoods and allow children to keep attending school. These services are already under strain. According to United Nations data cited by Reuters on 14 October, maternal deaths in Ituri rose by nearly 70% year on year between May and July, while facility-based deliveries fell by more than 30% and management of obstetric complications dropped by 50%.