Though only $100k, Colombia is the world’s only country to donate to the UN’s Ebola-fighting fund
LAST WEEK, the Ministry of Health said that it had isolated three Colombian nationals for symptoms of Ebola, but insisted there are no cases of the deadly virus in the country.
The three tested had recently arrived in Colombia from Liberia and Sierra Leone. After the tests, two were released, but one continues to be quarantined, local media reported, due to the virus being latent in the country he arrived from.
In a related development, as of October 17, Colombia was the only country in the world to have donated to the United Nations’ fund to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Reuters news agency reported.
While various countries have pledged or given some $365 million directly to UN agencies and nonprofits since September to fight the disease, just $100,000 USD – from the Colombian government – has been donated to the official fund, the report said.
The Minister of Health, Alejandro Gaviria, confirmed that Colombia does not have Ebola, and he assured that the three patients were thoroughly examined.
The Minister ordered that the identification of possible Ebola cases at El Dorado international airport should continue, as a measure to ensure the country’s safety.
Last Tuesday, Colombian officials confirmed that entry to Colombia will be denied to anyone who has travelled to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea or Nigeria in the past month – the countries that have been the worse affected by the Ebola virus, reports said.
Colombia is the first Latin American country to put these measures into place, according to reports.
