The African Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said it approved a grant of 500,000 dollars to finance the Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In a statement the ADB Communication Unit said the grant from the Special Relief Fund, was approved by the Board of Directors for the procurement of vaccines, kits, pharmaceutical products, and consumables, and accessories for safe blood transfusion in the DRC.

"The grant will be used to provide vaccines against target diseases of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) and potentially epidemic diseases such as cerebrospinal meningitis, yellow fever and cholera as well as test kits for HIV 1 and HIV 2, hepatitis and syphilis," the statement said.

The aim of the grant, the ADB said, is to help improve the health status of the population of the Kisangani region, and to specifically enable the government of that country tighten its control of the epidemiological situation.

An estimated budget of 2.90 million dollars, the statement said is expected to cover all the requirements, adding, "the Bank group contribution will support the government's efforts to improve the living conditions and ease the sufferings of the war victims."

Disbursement of the grant will begin in March this year and will cover a period of three months and procurement of drugs will have to conform with the WHO's procedures which are acceptable to the Bank.

According to the statement, since 1972 the Bank group has committed a total of 754.11 million US dollars for 54 operations in the DRC of which 710.54 million US dollars has been disbursed.