HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A new and deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda is the latest health emergency forcing African governments to break free of dependency on global donors like the United States as international support has been slashed in half over the past five years.Shrinking assistance worsened by the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts is colliding with Africa’s fast-growing population of over 1.5 billion people. The Ebola outbreak of a strain with no approved therapeutics or vaccines comes days after a rare hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship put officials on the continent on alert.Africa faces “an equally dangerous threat” of funding, Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said while launching an initiative for African self-reliance in health financing earlier this year.
“Every time we have an outbreak, many countries start to ask for partners because they don’t have in their budgets funding to respond, even to prepare for these outbreaks,” he added during a briefing on the new Ebola outbreak.But African nations know that must change.
1 MIN READ
6 MIN READ
2 MIN READ
