Members of Canadian Armed Forces load boxes of face shields onto a Hercules aircraft bound for Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Oct. 6. Canada is contributing another $30 million in aid to help contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Photo Credit: Master Cpl. Roy MacLellan/DND Handout/Canadian Press

Canada promises more to combat Ebola in Africa

Canada is promising to send more money and equipment to Africa to help limit the spread of Ebola, says the public broadcaster, CBC.

Canada will contribute $30 million to established aid agencies working in west Africa. This is in addition to $35 million promised to the World Health Organization, the UN and Humanitarian aid groups.

More equipment such as mobile labs will be sent, in addition to the two already sent to Sierra Leone.  One is working with Médecins Sans Frontières to provide rapid diagnosis. The other is helping improve infection prevention and control procedures.

Canada has donated up to $2.5 million worth of personal protective equipment.

Canada has also offered to donate a Canadian-developed experimental vaccine, currently undergoing clinical trials, to the WHO.

Expert team would fly to deal with a Canadian case

On the home front, CBC has learned that the transportation department has been asked to provide planes to transport medical staff in the event of a positive Ebola case in Canada. Canada has a world-renown International Centre for Infectious Diseases in the western city of Winnipeg. Staff from there would be sent to deal with the situation.

The health minister met with representatives of the nurses’ union yesterday to discuss their complaints of inadequate protective gear, training and preparedness for their members.

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