Washington, DC: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Associate Administrator Mark Feierstein announced plans to spend $126 million to help rebuild West African health systems impacted by the Ebola outbreak at the Global Citizen Concert on the National Mall.  The funds will help Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea restart critical health services that stopped due to the Ebola outbreak, including vaccinations, water and sanitation services, prenatal and maternal health care and nutrition, and programs to prevent and treat malaria and other infectious diseases.

In September last year, epidemiologists predicted the Ebola outbreak could result in 1.4 million cases within a few months, and the first case of Ebola landed in the U.S. homeland.   The U.S. Government responded by providing $1.4 billion to fund 10,000 civilian responders, provide huge volumes of personal protective equipment, fund and train healthcare workers, deploy laboratories, support epidemiological surveillance and disease tracing, and launch a massive social messaging and education campaign to inform Liberians about practices to protect themselves against infection.

“USAID has helped West African nations by beating back the Ebola outbreak,” said Associate Administrator Mark Feierstein.  “Now we’re helping ensure people have food to eat, schools are open and educating children, people are able to communicate through a strong infrastructure network, and families can support themselves by returning to jobs and markets.”

The U.S. Government and its partners helped Liberia—once the heart of the epidemic—bring down new cases of Ebola from more than 50 a day to zero.