Ebola crisis: US announces deployment of 100 health workers to West Africa, Gates commits $50 million

The United States announced today that it will support the African Union’s (AU) urgent deployment of trained and equipped medical workers to West Africa—the single largest injection of critical personnel to the region—to help combat the Ebola outbreak. With this contribution of $10 million, the United States has spent more than $100 million responding to the Ebola outbreak. This funding complements USAID’s announcement last week of plans to make available up to $75 million in additional funding.

The United States is committed to working with the international community to help bring this outbreak under control as soon as possible, and welcomes the AU’s leadership to mobilize the African response to the crisis. This funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. Department of State will be used to transport approximately 100 health workers to Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This includes 25 doctors, 45 nurses and other essential personnel to manage and run Ebola treatment units (ETUs) that isolate and treat those affected by the disease, helping minimize the spread of Ebola.

“The U.S. is committed to supporting the African Union’s response to the urgent needs across West Africa as a result of this vicious disease. We can and will stop this epidemic, but it will take a coordinated effort by the entire global community,” said USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah.

In addition, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that it will commit $50 million to support the scale up of emergency efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and interrupt transmission of the virus.

The foundation will immediately release flexible funds to United Nations agencies and international organizations involved in the response to enable them and national governments to purchase badly needed supplies and scale up emergency operations in affected countries. In addition, the foundation will work with public and private sector partners to accelerate the development of therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating patients and preventing further transmission of the disease. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page

“We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease,” said Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation. “We also want to accelerate the development of treatments, vaccines and diagnostics that can help end this epidemic and prevent future outbreaks.”