The United Nations (UN) announced on Friday that it has received pledges from international donors worth $3.4 billion to help countries in West Africa devastated by the Ebola outbreak. The amount of the pledges is more than the estimated $3.2 billion sought by the affected nations' leaders.
Helen Clark, chief of UN development, said that the latest pledges, along with the $1.8 billion previously donated, will provide the countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia around $5.2 billion of funds to use for rebuilding efforts after having been hit the hardest by the epidemic.
While the figures mentioned were only a preliminary tally, Clark stressed that the United Nations will follow up on the delivery of the funds to make sure that the recipient nations receive them accordingly.
The new donations included major pledges from African Development Bank ($745 million), the European Union ($495 million), the Islamic Development Bank ($360 million), the British government ($340 million) and the United States government ($266 million).
Speaking on behalf of the West African countries, Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia said that an additional $4 billion is needed to fund a recovery plan for the region.
She said the support from the international community will allow the countries affected by the Ebola outbreak to resuscitate their economies, restore the social fabric and promote world trade and regional stability.
Sirleaf added that the nations of the world have a great stake in how everyone responds to international threats. She also compared viral diseases, such as Ebola, to terrorism, stating that both are not confined by national boundaries.
Pres. Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone pointed out that the success of the national plans has a critical life and death urgency for the more than 20 million people living in the affected West African countries.
U.N. special envoy on Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said that the end of the epidemic is already in sight, with an estimated 30 new cases of infection every week in the affected countries and rigorous investigative work being conducted to identify the transmission chains.
Nabarro told reporters on Thursday that there are only less than six chains of transmission in each of the countries, which is far below than the ones recorded two months prior.
The UN envoy, however, explained that Ebola still exists in the bodies of people beyond the 21-day period of quarantine. The virus is able to live in the eyes, prostate gland and even the fetus of infected individuals, making it crucial to keep track of people exposed to disease.
Photo: Jason Dickert | Flickr
