HIGHLIGHTS
USAID announces $126 million to help rebuild health care systems in EVD-affected West African countries
The Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) in Liberia plans to close on April 30
EVD response teams visit more than 29,000 households in Guinea’s Forécariah Prefecture during pilot stay-at-home period
The week of April 6–12 reflects the lowest total number of prefectures and districts in EVD-affected countries to report a confirmed EVD case since the end of May 2014
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
On April 18, USAID announced plans to spend $126 million to help rebuild West African health care systems affected by the EVD outbreak. The support will assist Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone restart critical health services—vaccinations, water and sanitation services, prenatal and maternal health care and nutrition, and programs to prevent and treat malaria and other infectious diseases—suspended during the EVD outbreak.
On April 20, the European Mobile Laboratory team—the research consortium in charge of mapping the EVD genome—announced that scientists have completely mapped the EVD genome and now have the ability to trace EVD transmission chains genetically. Researchers confirmed that the current EVD outbreak began in December 2013 in Guinea’s Guéckédou Prefecture and discovered that the virus does not have a high mutation rate. In addition, the team developed the capacity to map an individual’s viral genetic sequence in real time, thereby enhancing EVD response activities by assisting EVD response actors in locating EVD transmission chains by area.