The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is giving Africa $5 million to support the continent’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to fight current outbreak of coronavirus.
The money according to the foundation will go into screening and crisis preparedness in Africa.
China is also getting $5 million from the foundation to support its current response efforts.
The foundation said in a press release that the money will be spent on “emergency funds and corresponding technical support to help frontline responders in China and Africa accelerate their efforts to contain the global spread of 2019-nCoV.”
In Africa the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said the money going to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is for “technical support to implement the screening and treatment of suspected cases, laboratory confirmation of 2019-nCoV diagnoses, and the safe isolation and care of identified cases.”
So far no African country has confirmed the outbreak of the virus but many have been anxious following reports that Ivory Coast is already testing a woman for a suspected case of coronavirus.
Ivory Coast’s health ministry said that the unnamed woman, a student, returned to the country from Beijing on Saturday.
She is currently undergoing further tests after showing flu-like symptoms, associated with the virus.
The statement said the woman lived in China for the past five years, and had shown flu-like symptoms before boarding the plane to Abidjan.
Many African countries have already issued alerts over the virus shortly after it became obvious it was spreading across the world.
The virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan but has spread beyond the shores of China with over 2000 cases reported as well as at least 100 deaths.
Victims often suffer from respiratory illness and this new strain of coronavirus was not previously identified in humans.
The coronavirus virus has spread to China’s neighbours Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as well as the USA.
Source: Africafeeds.com
