By Tobi Alli
Photo: Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
About $1bn is needed to fight Ebola outbreak in West Africa,, which is a health crisis ‘unparalleled in modern times’, UN officials say.
The spread of the disease means the funds needed to fight the outbreak have increased ten-fold in the past month. Ebola has killed 2,461 people this year, about half of those infected.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, 16 2014, the UN’s Ebola co-ordinator, David Nabarro told reporters that the fund needed has gone 10 fold higher.
“We requested about $100m a month ago and now it is $1bn, so our ask has gone up 10 times in a month,” the UN’s Ebola co-ordinator, David Nabarro, told a briefing in Geneva.
“Because of the way the outbreak is advancing, the level of surge we need to do is unprecedented, it is massive.”
The virus has infected at least 4,985 people so far, with about half of those infected dying.
The outbreak began in Guinea before spreading to its neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Nigeria and Senegal have reported some cases, but seem to have contained the transmission of the virus.
