India has sent 43 tons of aid to the African Union (AU) to help contain the Ebola outbreak that has been ongoing in Africa since mid-May, the Indian government announced on Tuesday (2).
At the AU’s request, India sent an aid package that includes “protective equipment, diagnostic and monitoring devices, sample transport kits, infection prevention supplies, medicines, and supplements,” the Indian government said in a statement.
The supplies are expected to arrive in Uganda and will be received by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the AU’s health agency.
This is the second and largest shipment of aid to combat the epidemic, following India’s initial shipment of 2.5 tons of urgent medical supplies in late May.
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“Our missions in Addis Ababa, [Ethiopia], and Kampala, [Uganda], are working closely with the African Union Commission and Africa CDC to support their Ebola response efforts,” he said.
The Asian country has not recorded any cases of Ebola, after authorities reported the quarantine of four people in the west of the country due to a suspected case, according to a message posted Tuesday on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by the Indian Ministry of Health.
The Indian government has asked citizens to avoid travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, and South Sudan, and has strengthened screening measures at international airports and other points of entry.
Last week, India postponed the India-Africa Forum and International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) summits, which were scheduled to take place in June in the capital New Delhi, due to the emerging health situation in some parts of Africa.
The current Ebola virus disease outbreak, an extremely contagious hemorrhagic fever, was declared on May 15 in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Uganda, a neighbor of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya, which has confirmed 11 infections, including one fatality, is the only other country to which the virus has spread so far.
The DRC—which borders Angola—and Uganda have reported 263 confirmed cases and 43 deaths from Ebola, two weeks after the first cases were confirmed, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday.
More than 1,000 suspected cases and about 250 deaths have been recorded in the two countries, according to a report by Africa CDC, the health agency of the African Union (AU).
The Ebola virus, first detected in 1976, near the river of the same name in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is transmitted through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids from infected people or animals and causes severe hemorrhagic fever, muscle aches, weakness, headaches, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and internal bleeding.
Ebola causes a deadly hemorrhagic fever, but the virus, which has caused more than 15,000 deaths in Africa over the past 50 years, is less contagious than COVID-19 or measles, according to the WHO.
