Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan has donated $3.5m towards the fight against the Ebola crisis in west Africa.
The president made the donation on Thursday during a gathering of the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) currently taking place in Accra, Ghana.
A donation of $500, 000 was made to
Liberia in response to the launch of the ECOWAS special fund for the fight against Ebola by the ECOWAS chairperson, Ghanaian president John Dramani Mahama. According to Liberian media, president Jonathan also made donations to other countries affected by the outbreak including Sierra Leone, Guinea and the West African Health Organisation to the tune of about $3.5M in total.
The African leaders decided to launch the emergency pool fund after a report published by the Director General of WAHO showed the extent of the threat posed by the disease to the sub region. Dr Xavier Crespin told the summit that about 844 cases linked to Ebola have been reported in the countries. Out of these, 514 people are thought to have lost their lives to the scourge.
In Liberia alone, President Joseph Boakai revealed that about 131 cases of Ebola had been reported with 87 deaths linked to the virus so far.
The epidemic was first reported in March in Guinea, however, it has since spread to other west African countries with up to 90% of those infected killed.
The WHO says the outbreak is the worst ever to have hit the region on record and experts fear that the 2-21 day incubation period of the disease could mean that it could spread to other regions of Africa and even Europe as some of the countries affected have flight links to Europe.
Ebola is one of the worst diseases in the world with no Known cure or vaccine. It is mostly prevalent in remote areas of Africa and is transmitted from animals to humans.
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