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A pair of U.S. senators from opposite parties has called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to unlock congressionally-approved international assistance amid a widening Ebola crisis in East Africa. Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire submitted a letter Thursday requesting that the State Department distribute $608 million in family-planning resources and deploy $1.7 million in medical supplies currently held at a facility in Geel, Belgium.
The lawmakers emphasized that Ebola poses an acute danger to pregnant women, noting that the virus carries a nearly 100 percent fetal mortality rate and poses severe hemorrhaging risks to expecting mothers. They argued that access to voluntary family-planning services, contraception, and post-assault medical care would help women reduce transmission risk and prevent catastrophic outcomes during the outbreak.
As of July 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 3,532 confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 1,556 deaths, yielding a mortality rate of approximately 44 percent. Uganda has documented 20 confirmed cases and two deaths from the same outbreak, according to CDC data.
The senators also requested that the State Department grant a “humanitarian exception” to support existing United Nations Population Fund health clinics in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The pair warned that the virus’s rapid transmission demands immediate action and noted that the U.S. response costs are approaching $1 billion.
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