Feds allocate $2M for foreign Ebola response

The Obama administration will dole out as much as $2 million as part of a global effort to “quickly arrest” the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is soliciting applications for the grant funding from “eligible Ministries of Health and their bona fide agents,” according to a notice to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register.

The announcement comes as some congressional Democrats are complaining about insufficient public health funding to respond to the crisis domestically, following the diagnosis of a pair of health workers in Texas with the virus.

{mosads}The funding proposed by the CDC would target impacted countries in West Africa, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

“This funding will enable the U.S. to provide unified mobilization to address a crisis of this magnitude,” the agency said, asserting that a global response is required to snuff out the disease, which has killed thousands of people in Africa this year.

“CDC and its partners will help to address the need for surveillance, detection, coordination, response, and increase eligible governments’ capacity to respond to the Ebola outbreak,” the agency said.