South Sudan’s government has approved 500,000 USD as emergency funds in the fight against Ebola following the reported Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Uganda.
Uganda has confirmed seven cases of Ebola as authorities try to track down 43 contacts of known Ebola patients – two days after the East African country announced an outbreak of the contagious disease.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe and often fatal illness in humans caused by the Ebola virus. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Based on previous outbreaks, up to 67% of infected cases die.
Addressing reporters in Juba on Friday after the cabinet meeting, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Elia Lomuro said the ministry of health is ready to control the virus from entering the country.
“The ministry of health has the equipment and the facility and expertise to test and be able to control the disease, and we were told that the ministry is in that position, capable, has the experts and machines,” Elia said.
He revealed that the ministry of finance is ready to release the emergency funds as soon as the paperwork for the payment is ready.
Institutional reforms
Separately, Minister Martin said the cabinet also discussed a strategic plan for the Ministry of Public Service and Human Resource Development.
He revealed that the ministry seeks to introduce reforms in all public institutions. “We should also recognize that the agreement recognizes that these many ministries will be reduced so that we move towards a lean government and that the parastatals, commissions, corporations, whatever these are institutions that run the system, the ministry is now having the task to build institutions to make sure that the country is run by professionals,” Elia said
“There were institutions that we established after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, and those institutions might have been weak in one way or another, but the policy that was presented by the minister is intended to build institutions in South Sudan,” he added.
