The UK government is working with the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and World Health Organization (WHO) to monitor the situation and be ready to act quickly to tackle the spread of the disease.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:
The Ebola epidemic in 2014 highlighted that to save lives we need to act quickly to stop the spread of this disease.
DFID and Wellcome jointly fund a research initiative on epidemic preparedness. Today, DFID is making available £1 million from this programme to support the rapid response, in addition to a further £2 million being made available by Wellcome.
DFID has worked with Wellcome to develop a safe vaccine for Ebola which is currently stockpiled, ready for use, by the Global Vaccines Alliance, GAVI – to which we are a major contributor.
The UK Public Health Rapid Support Team is also on standby ready to be deployed to support the response, if required.
DRC has experienced several Ebola outbreaks since 1976, and the country is familiar with managing the disease.
