DFID Provides Funds For Ebola Preparedness In Malawi

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has provided about 478,000 Euros to UNICEF for Ebola preparedness and prevention work in Malawi.

In a statement, Desmond Whyms, DFID Health Team Leader for Malawi, said the funding, will include the training of 500 health workers from nine districts of Chitipa, Karonga, Mzuzu, Dowa, Lilongwe, Mchinji, Dedza, Mwanza, and Blantyre on how to prevent, detect, treat and manage Ebola.

UNICEF will procure supplies to ensure that the nine districts are prepared for any potential outbreak.

Over the next four months, UNICEF will also support the screening of soldiers returning from the DRC.

In his remarks, UNICEF Malawi Health Specialist Steve Macheso said “we welcome DFID’s support which he said will strengthen its work with the Government of Malawi and NGO partners in the border districts to prevent Ebola from crossing into Malawi.”

About 500 refugees and asylum seekers enter Malawi every month, most of them from the DRC.

Although none of the migrants have ever reported having been in Ebola hotspots, the likelihood of an infected person crossing into Malawi is there.

The Ebola outbreak which was previously confined to one area in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has now spread to the city of Goma. Goma is a city of 2 million people which lies on DRC’s border with Rwanda, putting neighboring countries, and the Southern Africa region at potential risk of Ebola.

The World Health Organization has since declared the Ebola outbreak in DRC a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”.