The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has just announced that it will donate $50 million to help finance the emergency response against the Ebola virus in West Africa.
The foundation, which promised to release funds to international organizations and United Nation agencies immediately, said that the money would go into buying supplies and scaling up operations in the region. The group also vowed to help hasten the development of therapies and vaccines to prevent further transmission of the disease. It is still not clear how the money would be split between emergency operations and research and development. However, the organization said that it is working with partners to determine how the funds should be spent.
"We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease," Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said in a press release. "We also want to accelerate the development of treatments, vaccines and diagnostics that can help end this epidemic and prevent future outbreaks."
The organization, which has already committed $10 million out of the total funds to emergency operations in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, said that the funds will be divided between agencies such as the United Nations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The $10 million will be split equally between the WHO's operations and R&D assessments and the procurement of necessary medical supplies through US Fund for UNICEF. On top of that, another $2 million has been earmarked for the CDC for supporting "incident management, treatment and health care system strengthening."
As the Ebola virus continues to spread across the region, authorities have struggled to contain the disease. To date, more than 2,300 people have died from the virus. It has mostly been concentrated in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. However, data from Oxford University predicts that the virus may eventually spread to more countries. The current outbreak has also affected nearby nations such Senegal and Nigeria. However, the Oxford University model said that the disease will eventually make its way to Central African Republic, Cameroon, United Republic of Tanzania, Ghana, Angola, Togo, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi and Madagascar.
