Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to help combat Ebola. The 30-year-old announced via his Facebook page that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation.
Priscilla and I are donating $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help fight Ebola. The Ebola epidemic is at a critical turning point. 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.
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.
Grants like this directly help the frontline responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola causes and much more. We are hopeful this will help save lives and get this outbreak under control.
The couple also included a link to where people could learn more about the fight against Ebola. The deadly disease has already claimed the lives of thousands of people, including one man in the United States.
Thomas Eric Duncan, a citizen of Liberia, checked himself into a Texas hospital after developing a high fever. He tested positive for Ebola on Sept. 30 and died Oct. 8. So far, two nurses who treated Duncan at the hospital have already tested positive for the virus.
According to Business Insider, officials have estimated that it will take about $1 billion to stop Ebola.
"This significant contribution from Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan will help us rapidly advance the fight against Ebola," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement.
Reportedly, the $25 million donated by Zuckerberg and his wife will go towards helping to train local staff, providing equipment for community care centers, providing generators and vehicles to transport lab specimens, identifying Ebola cases and tracking their contacts, and providing safer burial support.
