WHO: $1 billion needed to keep Ebola infections within the ‘tens of thousands’

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The World Health Organization is pleading for a global investment of nearly $1 billion to fight the spread of Ebola, warning that the amount is merely the minimum needed to keep infections of the deadly virus “within the tens of thousands.”

The organization has long warned that Ebola’s toll — which stands at at least 2,461 dead and 4,985 infected as of Sept. 13, according to the WHO — vastly underestimates the crisis. But now it appears that the epidemic is spreading at such a rapid pace that tens of thousands more infections and thousands more deaths are expected, even with a dramatically scaled-up response.

The toll has doubled in the past month, the WHO’s Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward said Tuesday at a news conference in Geneva,according to Reuters.

Source: The Washington Post (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
infectious diseases, public health