US to re-engage with Gavi amid Ebola outbreak, Rubio says
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will re-engage with Gavi amid an Ebola outbreak in African countries. The alliance had lost about $300 million a year in US funding last year.
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the United States would re-engage with the global vaccine alliance Gavi as several African countries face an Ebola outbreak.
Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the decision to re-engage had been taken a few weeks ago. The move follows the Trump administration’s decision last year to pull US funding from Gavi.
Gavi helps poorer countries purchase vaccines to protect children against diseases including measles and diphtheria. The alliance also works on outbreak response. It has made $50 million available for the ongoing Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, including $10 million for the immediate response and $40 million to help accelerate access to vaccines that are still at an early stage of development.
The Geneva-based organisation’s budget was hit in June last year when US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said the United States would stop providing funding, which accounted for about $300 million annually, saying Gavi had ignored safety.
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