CERF supports cholera response in DR Congo with $4.1 million
21 July 2011: The CERF provided $4.1 million to fight a cholera outbreak spreading through western DR Congo in July. During the course of June and July more than 3,000 cholera cases had been identified and at least 200 people had died. The disease was travelling westward along the Congo River, with an increasing number of cholera cases reported in the capital, Kinshasa. As many as a million people were at risk of infection.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was provided with $3.3 million from the CERF, allowing it to work with NGO partners to provide safe water supplies and sanitation facilities in affected areas, establish emergency health centres to treat those infected, and carry out a public information campaign using local radio and television to inform communities and contain the disease. CERF funding enabled UNICEF and its implementing partners to reach at least 12,000 of the most vulnerable people. A further $800,000 was allocated to the World Health Organization (WHO) to work with local partners to put a cholera surveillance system in place and establish treatment procedures to reduce the possibility of another outbreak.
Updated on 22 July 2011
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