Question Period Note: Ebola

The Canadian Government is concerned about Ebola, particularly the most recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

• Controlling outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola is important to ensure the health and safety of Canadians and citizens around the world. Canada is monitoring the situation.

• Canada has provided both technical and financial support to humanitarian partners such as UN, NGOs, and Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement responding to the Ebola outbreak in DRC; in addition, a Canadian-developed vaccine was deployed through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

• Despite significant challenges, the WHO is cautiously optimistic this outbreak can be stopped. Canada will continue to support global efforts to prevent, detect and respond to this and other outbreaks, as appropriate.

Ebola virus disease is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976, and since then there has been frequent outbreaks. The 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak ever seen. Canada provided $110 million funding in response to that outbreak.

In August 2018, the DRC government announced a second outbreak of Ebola in the DRC. The outbreak poses a risk to other provinces of the DRC, as well as the region. In addition, ongoing insecurity and limited humanitarian access in the region hinders the implementation of response activities. On July 17, 2019, the WHO declared the Ebola virus disease outbreak in the DRC a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The current Strategic Response Plan (July - December 2019) has an estimated budget of US$ 287M. As of 15 November 2019, US$ 85.6 million has been received by WHO.

Canada supports the effort to prevent and control Ebola outbreaks through UN partners, Canadian institutions and civil society organizations. Since May 2018, Canada contributed $14.75 million ($11.5 million unannounced) in humanitarian assistance, to support the response in the DRC, as well as preparedness activities in neighbouring countries. Additional resources are also available from other Canadian-supported international mechanisms: the Central Emergency Response Fund ($29.4 M in 2018); the Contingency Fund for Emergencies ($1 M in 2018); and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance ($500 M for 2016-2020).

As of November 18, 2019, 3,296 cases, including 2,194 deaths, had resulted from this outbreak. Nearly 250,000 doses of a recently developed and experimental Canadian vaccine first used in West Africa (2014-2016) have been administered so far under an arrangement with Gavi. In November 2019, the WHO prequalified the Ebola vaccine for the first time, a critical step that will help speed up its licensing, access and roll-out in countries most at risk of Ebola outbreaks.

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