Almost a million people in Togo are at risk from an unexpected outbreak of potentially deadly Lassa fever, which is not endemic to the country. Now the Start Fund, one of the success stories of foreign aid, is responding, and in so doing has passed a significant milestone: it's the fund's 100th crisis response in exactly three years.
On Sunday April 2, the African aid agency ALIMA, one of Start Network’s 42 members, formally alerted the fund to the need to intervene in the crisis. Within 24 hours the Start Fund decided to support swift action to control this dangerous outbreak. On Wednesday, April 5, it decided to fund a project put forward by another network member, Plan International, and the following day that agency took the first steps towards a rapid response.
The story of how this has unfolded so far is below, told in real time. It will be updated regularly over coming days as the crisis intervention gets fully under way.