Japan flies in protective equipment to UNMEER

The Japan Disaster Relief Team has presented personal protective equipment (PPE) to the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) at a ceremony at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

In November this year, the Japanese government pledged to provide approximately 700,000 sets of PPEs to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali, to assist the fight against the Ebola outbreak in those countries..

Twenty-thousand sets of the PPEs, which formed the first batch, were transported by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force aircraft in response to the request from the UNMEER to facilitate rapid delivery. 

The Japanese government has so far spent about $43.5 million in support of the fight against the Ebola disease.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the three worst-hit countries in West Africa reached 6,583 as of December 10, 2014, according to the World Health Organisation.