Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr Priscilla Chan, are donating $25m to the fight against the worst-ever Ebola outbreak in west Africa. The money will go to the CDC Foundation, a private, non-profit organization securing donations to help the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fight the epidemic in west Africa, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives. “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,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook. “We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome.”
Zuckerberg’s donation more than doubled the contributions toward the Ebola response received by the foundation. Claire Greenwell, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said it has so far received approximately $40m in commitments and donations to help combat the crisis in west Africa. She said the donations will provide critical resources and services needed to improve the situation on the ground in west Africa.
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