World News Actuality Claire Evren & Mark Zuckerberg
World News Actuality Presented By Claire Evren The Guest of The Day Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg Facebook founder donates $25m to fight Ebola
The US businessman said the epidemic is at “a critical point”
The Facebook CEO made the announcement, stating that the fund will go towards the Centers for Disease Control Foundation.
President Barack Obama insisted that the chances of a serious outbreak of Ebola on US soil remained “very, very low”, but warned the epidemic will “spread globally” if allowed the rage without control in West Africa
Mr Obama said that the “likelihood of widespread Ebola outbreaks in this country are very, very low… but we are taking this very seriously at the highest level of government”.
President says ’emergency response SWAT team’ will ensure proper isolation of any patients – and proper protection for care-givers
The pandemic has caused 4,000 deaths in Africa. Special screenings are now taking place in some US and UK airports for possible carriers of the virus
The World Health Organisation has warned that there could be 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week within two months.
WHO officials also predict that the number of cases is likely to exceed 9,000 by the end of this week, as the virus continues to spread rapidly across Africa.
British health secretary Jeremy Hunt has told MPs that it is “likely” that Ebola will be seen in the UK and a “handful” of cases could be confirmed by Christmas.
“The Ebola epidemic is at a critical turning point,” he wrote. “It has infected 8,400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1million people or more over the next several months if not addressed.
“We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.
“We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome.”