The five East African Community (EAC) partner states on Thursday committed to contribute a team of medical experts, and funds to support Ebola Virus Disease Containment in West Africa. The bloc is jointly contributing a total of 41 medical doctors and 578 other healthcare workers for the effort. Rwanda has pledged seven medical doctors and seven other healthcare workers, Kenya 15 medical doctors and 300 other healthcare workers, while Uganda will contribute 14 medical doctors and 21 other healthcare workers. Tanzania pledged five medical doctors and Burundi 250 healthcare workers. This follows the bloc’s mounting concern about the ongoing epidemic that has so far claimed 4,400 lives, mostly in West Africa. Ministers of health from the Community extensively discussed the epidemic during the 10th ordinary meeting that started Monday at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The bloc is concerned by the rapid spread of the disease as well as its impact on socio-economic development. Meanwhile, the disease has gained more global attention after several schools in the American states of Ohio and Texas canceled classes Thursday over concerns that staff members and some students might have come in contact with a person infected with Ebola. On Wednesday, the White House scrambled to ease concerns over the spread of Ebola after a second Texas hospital worker tested positive for the virus. The first two cases are being a pair of nurses who got sick after treating Thomas Duncan, the first person ever diagnosed with Ebola in the US.
