Microsoft Corporation co-founder Paul Allen said Thursday that he would contribute $100 million to the fight against Ebola, making him one of the biggest personal contributors to the fight against the virus.
Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates in 1975, had already pledged $26.5 million to non- profit agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fight Ebola in September.
In a statement released Thursday, Allen said he was committed to donate at least $100 million to the fight against Ebola through different channels.
"The Ebola virus is unlike any health crisis we have ever experienced and needs a response unlike anything we have ever seen," Allen said in the statement, reports Reuters.
A part of the money will go to fund development of two medical evacuation containment units that the U.S. State Department can use to safely evacuate health workers if they become infected with Ebola.
Some of the money will also go to the University of Massachusetts Medical School to train medics and provide supplies for relief efforts in Liberia.
In addition, Allen's donation will be used to help the World Health Organization to augment its capacity in handling the logistics involved in the transportation of international aid workers.
He also plans to help in the starting of a fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation indented to cover the gap between the insurance cover of a health worker in need of emergency evacuation and the actual cost involved in the process.
"This is really more about trying to attack every element of this problem," Allen said. "This disease expands at an exponential rate, so there is a need for exponentially more health care workers," he added, reports The New York Times.
