Gates Foundation pledges 50 mln USD for Ebola emergency response
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it will commit 50 million U.S. dollars to support the scale up of emergency efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.The foundation said in a statement that it will immediately release funds to United Nations agencies and international organizations involved in the response to enable them and national governments to purchase badly needed supplies and scale up emergency operations in affected countries.The foundation also pledged to work with public and private sector partners to accelerate the development of therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating patients and preventing further transmission of the disease."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," said Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation."We also want to accelerate the development of treatments, vaccines and diagnostics that can help end this epidemic and prevent future outbreaks," she added.The foundation has already provided more than 10 million dollars of the 50 million dollars to fight the Ebola outbreak, including 5 million dollars to the World Health Organization for emergency operations and research and development assessments.Another 5 million dollars went to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to support efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to purchase medical supplies, coordinate response activities, and provide at- risk communities with health information.An additional 2 million dollars will now be committed to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support incident management, treatment, and health care system strengthening in Ebola-affected countries.The foundation said it will provide further details on its funding commitments as additional grants are made.
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