The European Commission has cleared a grant worth 700 000 ECU to fund a vaccination campaign against yellow fever in Liberia. The grant, channelled via the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), will enable Medecins sans Frontieres-Belgium to run a campaign in the capital, Monrovia, lasting two months.

Cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in the city, and the plan is to vaccinate its entire population of one million. Yellow fever is a virus whose symptoms include hepatitis, jaundice and haemorraghic syndrome. In November, ECHO funded a separate vaccination campaign against yellow fever in Buchanan, Liberia, some 150 km south of the capital.