Ebola: Allen offers $9m; Cuba contributes 165 health workers

September 12

17:03 2014

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Less than 48 hours after Microsoft boss, Bill Gates, pledged the donation of $50m to United Nations agencies and other international groups for the fight against Ebola, the corporation’s co-founder Paul Allen’s charitable foundation is also set to announce it is donating $9m.

Gates donation through Bill and Melinda Foundation was aimed at the purchase of supplies, such as protective gear for health workers in Ebola-stricken nations.

On the other hand, Allen would send his donation to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish emergency operations centres in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed close to 2,400 people.

“The tragedy of Ebola is that we know how to tackle the disease, but the governments in West Africa are in dire need of more resources and solutions,” Allen wrote in an essay scheduled to be posted on his blog.

“The developed world needs to step up now with resources and solutions.”

Meanwhile, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Cuba’s minister of public health, has revealed that 165 Cuban health workers would be deployed to West Africa to help in the fight against the virus.

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, appreciated the aid from Cuba saying; “Cuba is world-famous for its ability to train outstanding doctors and nurses and for its generosity in helping fellow countries on the route to progress.”

The health workers comprising doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, specialists in infection control, intensive care specialists and social mobilisation officers, are to begin arriving Sierra Leone in October.