MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – No less than $1 billion will be required to effectively fight the Ebola virus, storming West Africa, Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Ebola Virus Disease David Nabarro said on Tuesday at a briefing in Geneva.
“We requested about 100 million dollars a month ago and now it is one billion dollars, so our demand has increased 10 times in a month," Nabarro said.
According to the UN representative, the needs of the organization have increased tenfold in August and they will continue to grow if the number of people infected with the fever further increases.
On the same day US President Barack Obama is expected to announce an expansion of the country's resources devoted to fight the spread of the Ebola virus. Obama will offer help to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the construction of 17 Ebola treatment centers in the region, with about 1,700 treatment beds.
The Ebola death toll in West Africa has passed 2,500 since the epidemic started in March, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Cases of the virus have been registered in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.
The Ebola virus mortality rate currently stands at 53 percent. There is no officially approved medication for the disease and experts claim prevention is the only cure. Several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are currently working on developing Ebola vaccines.
