News Digest

U.N. pushes international community for more funds as Ebola cases increase

A major international push has been announced to intensify efforts to contain the ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says urgent action is needed to prevent the disease spreading to 15 African countries. Up to four generations of some families have been wiped out by the illness in Sierra Leone, and those relatives left behind now face a life of desperate hunger, poverty and isolation. International response and aid has been sluggish. A United Nations trust fund seeking nearly $1 billion for rapid, flexible funding of the most urgent needs to fight Ebola in West Africa has received a deposit of just $100,000 nearly a month after it was set up. U.S. President Barack Obama ramped up a frustration-powered campaign to get reluctant major allies to shoulder more of the burden of quelling the deadly outbreak at its source in West Africa.

It is not a matter of choosing whether to do it or not. It’s just a question of when we pay the price for it.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim

After prodding from world leaders, few countries are promising more resources. A team of 91 British medics, including nurses, doctors and infectious disease consultants, has arrived in Sierra to work at a UK-supported treatment centre. Australia has committed to a contribution of more than $8.7 million to the U.N. fund, and Chile, Estonia, India and Romania have made non-binding pledges. More than 4,500 are now known to have died from the virus, which has sparked a series of alerts across Europe and the United States.