The Ebola disease has arrived on American shores and the country can no longer ignore the worldwide epidemic. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan hope to keep the disease in check with a $25 million donation to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation.
"The Ebola epidemic is at a critical turning point," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page. "It has infected 8,400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1 million people or more over the next several months if not addressed."
The Facebook creator's generous donation will help assist the CDC's Ebola response in West Africa, according to the CDC. Donations to the CDC Foundation will provide supplies, equipment and funding to emergency operation centers in the most impacted areas such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"Grants like this directly help the frontline responders in their heroic work," Zuckerberg wrote. "These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more. We are hopeful this will help save lives and get this outbreak under control."
The CDC has committed more than 700 staff members to its Ebola response. More than 100 have been deployed to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to assist with response efforts on the ground including surveillance, contact tracing, database management and health education, according to the CDC.
"There is a window of opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing. We need action now to scale up the response," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said.
Anyone can donate to the CDC Foundation's Global Disaster Response Fund that allows the organization to respond in real-time to stopping the spread of the deadly Ebola disease.
