The UK will provide up to £20m to help contain an Ebola outbreak suspected of killing more than 130 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
The Foreign Office money will be used to help support frontline health workers, improve infection control and monitor the epidemic.
It comes after Congolese authorities said 139 suspected deaths and almost 600 suspected cases have been recorded.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “It is vital we act now to save lives – outbreaks like Ebola do not stop at borders, and neither can we.”
Ms Cooper is expected to chair a meeting alongside new Health Secretary James Murray on Thursday. They will co-ordinate the UK’s response, including work to protect British nationals overseas.
The foreign secretary continued: “This outbreak is a stark reminder that global health threats require a global response.
“The UK is working hand-in-hand with partners – boosting much-needed funding but also sharing our technical expertise to contain the outbreak, protect our security and support those most at risk.”
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has activated its “returning workers scheme” to monitor those travelling from the UK to the area for work.
It is also assessing routes travellers use to enter the UK to ensure information on Ebola symptoms is available to those who need it.
Dr Mike Reynolds, incident director at the UKHSA, said while the current outbreak is “serious”, it poses a “low” risk to the UK population.
Ebola is a rare, highly contagious and often fatal disease generally transmitted via bodily fluids.
Symptoms include a high temperature, extreme tiredness, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain and bleeding.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that the latest outbreak, which is of a rare Ebola strain known as Bundibugyo, is likely to have started a couple of months ago.
“WHO has a team on the ground supporting national authorities to respond. We have deployed people, supplies, equipment and funds,” he said, adding that $3.9m in emergency funding from the agency had now been approved to support the response.
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