Turkey to send medical aid to African countries

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Health workers push a wheeled stretcher holding a newly admitted Ebola patient in to the Save the Children Kerry town Ebola treatment center outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, Dec. 22, 2014. REUTERS Photo

Turkey will send 2.5 million Turkish Liras’ worth of medical aid to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia to fight the deadly Ebola virus, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry on Jan. 28.

The first batch of medical aid is scheduled to arrive in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, on Jan. 28, the statement said.

Other shipments will be made to Sierra Leone and Liberia on Jan. 30, the statement added. Turkey’s Health Ministry and the country’s emergency relief agency, AFAD, have worked on an updated list of medical materials needed.

More than 20,000 people have contracted Ebola in the three hardest-hit West African countries - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.    

As of last December, some 8,000 people had succumbed to the virus in these three countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Ebola, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe – often fatal – illness in humans. The virus can be transmitted to people from wild animals, but can also spread via human-to-human transmission.