Update: the current situation and SDC operations
• The number of Ebola infections continues to rise in the three countries hardest hit – Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone. The epidemic is having a grave impact on the entire health care system in the affected countries, with serious implications also for the overall security situation, food supplies and the local economies.
• In response to the ongoing spread of the Ebola epidemic, Switzerland is increasing its contribution for the fight against the highly infectious disease by CHF 5 million. The SDC's financial commitment since the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in March 2014 has thus far reached a total of CHF 9 million.
• The focus of assistance provided by SDC, and the use to which the additional funding is being put, is on: 1) treatment and prevention operations to help contain the epidemic; 2) strengthening of the local health systems; 3) mitigating the side-effects of the crisis, including food shortages.
• The SDC is making additional funds available to the Ebola research centre of the Hospitals of the University of Geneva (HUG). The centre will be supplying medical personnel in Geneva and Liberia, both for treatment of the infected and for prevention and training projects.
• Additional financial support is also being given to the ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the Swiss Red Cross Association.
• The UN World Food Programme (WPF) is receiving additional financial contributions for the distribution of food and for logistic operations for the transport of medical personnel and medical relief supplies.
• The staff at the SDC programme office in Monrovia will be reinforced by an emergency coordinator and a logistics expert from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA). Onsite SDC staff receives support from security experts.