FACEBOOK CEO MARK Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are donating $25 million (about €19.7 million) to the global fight against Ebola.
Zuckerberg said that he and Chan would be giving the money to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation [sic] in a bid to help tackle the deadly virus.
He announced the news on Facebook, naturally enough.
In his statement, Zuckerberg said that the Ebola epidemic is is “at a critical turning point”.
“It has infected 8,400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1 million people or more over the next several months if not addressed.
We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.
Zuckerberg said the grant would help frontline responders in their “heroic work” against Ebola, which has killed more than 4,000 people to date – mainly in West Africa.
Needless to say, the news went down well…
In September, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $50 million (€39.5 million) to help boost the fight against the Ebola outbreak.
Last week, Thomas Eric Duncan became the first man to die in American from Ebola. He became infected with the virus in Liberia. A healthcare worker who treated Duncan has since tested positive for the disease.
The UK has started screening people for Ebola at its airports and ferry ports. JFK International airport in New York has also started screening travellers, as will several more American airports next week.
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