to support emergency efforts to contain West Africa's Ebola epidemic,
which has already killed almost 2,300 people in the worst outbreak of
the virus in history.
The U.S.-based philanthropic foundation said it would release funds
immediately to U.N. agencies and international organisations to help
them buy supplies and scale up the emergency response in affected
countries.
It will also work with public and private sector partners to speed up
to development of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be
effective in treating Ebola patients and preventing further spread of
the haemorrhagic fever-causing virus.
"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," Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the Foundation's chief
executive officer, said in a statement.
Latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show the Ebola
outbreak, which began in March, has infected almost 4,300 people so
far, killing more than half of them.
The deadly viral infection is raging in three countries - Guinea,
Liberia, Sierra Leone - and has also spread into neighbouring Nigeria
and Senegal.
The WHO said on Tuesday the Ebola death toll jumped by almost 200 in a
single day to at least 2,296 and is already likely to be higher than
that. It has previously warned that the epidemic is growing
"exponentially" and there could be up to 20,000 cases in West Africa
before it is brought to a halt.
Chris Elias, the Gates Foundation's head of global development, said
in a telephone interview the group would be assessing over coming days
where funds could be best spent.
Some would go to the most acute and immediate needs, he said, and some
would be put towards more longer-term research into treatments and
ways of preventing future outbreaks.
"The spread of this disease has really happened because of the very
weak health systems in these very poor countries," he said. "We need
to be thinking how we can build up those health services, how we train
healthcare workers, and how we make sure they have the equipment they
need to do their jobs."
The Gates money comes after the British government and the Wellcome
Trust medical charity last month pledged 6.5 million pounds ($10.8
mln) to speed up research on Ebola, a disease for which there is
currently no licensed treatment or vaccine.
The WHO has backed the use of untested drugs, as long as conditions on
consent are met, and is hoping for improved supplies of experimental
medicines by the end of the year.
Britain's minister for international development, Justine Greening,
welcomed the Gates support, saying the "serious health, social and
economic risks posed by one of the worst outbreaks of the disease
require the entire international community to do more to assist".
The Gates Foundation - set up by the billionaire founder of Microsoft
Bill Gates to fight disease and poverty in poor countries - has
already committed more than $10 million to fight the Ebola outbreak,
including $5 million to the WHO for emergency operations and research
and development assessments and $5 million to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF
to support efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
In its statement, the foundation said it would also give an extra $2
million immediately to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to support incident management, treatment, and health
care system strengthening.
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