Africa Resilience Initiative

vaccinenewsdaily.com - by Paul Tinder - August 28, 2012

The United Kingdom is activating a $3.16 million emergency plan to stop the cholera epidemic from spreading in the African state of Sierra Leone after more than 200 people have died.

The Department for International Development is using a network called the Rapid Response Facility to deliver sanitation, water and emergency medical assistance to the country. Charities such as the British Red Cross, Care International, Concern, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee and Save the Children are mobilizing as part of the response to the water-borne disease, BBC reports.

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The New York Times - by Josh Kron - July 28, 2012

KAMPALA, Uganda — An outbreak of the rare and deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in midwestern Uganda, many in the past week, the Ugandan government said Saturday.

A team of health experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the Ugandan government has been sent to the area, roughly three hours from Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to begin emergency response measures, according to a government statement.

The strain of the virus, which in recent years has killed at a rate often above 70 percent of those infected, has been identified as Ebola Sudan, one of the virus’s more common strains.

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STUTTGART, Germany - Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator for USAID's Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), addresses staff of U.S. Africa Command, March 30, 2012, as part of the Command Speaker Series. Lindborg talked about USAID's efforts in Africa and discussed how U.S. AFRICOM can better work with the interagency organization to achieve common objectives. (U.S. AFRICOM photo by Danielle Skinner)

submitted by Samuel Bendett

U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs - by Danielle Skinner

STUTTGART, Germany, Apr 3, 2012 — In developing countries experiencing chronic crises, such as those in the Horn of Africa, disaster risk reduction is often just as important, if not more so, than humanitarian response and recovery, according to a senior official from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).