Foreign aid for countries battling the Ebola outbreak has continued to pour in with China announcing a donation of $32.5 million and the World Bank approving a $105 million grant to boost efforts to combat the disease.
However, the aid from China and the World Bank will only be given to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea because they are the worst hit by the disease.
Nigeria
was not named among the countries to benefit from the aid funds and it
is believed that this is because Ebola has been successfully contained
in the nation and even at its peak it didn’t infect as many people as in
the 3 disease-ravaged nations.
The President of China, Xi Jinping announced on Thursday, September 18, 2014 that the Asian nation would provide 200 million Yuan ($ 32.54 million) to be used for an aid package which would include cash, food and materials.
The
president added that China would also give the World Health
Organization and the African Union $2 million each, CCTV reports.
The
World Bank approved a grant of $105 million on Tuesday, September 16,
2014 to combat Ebola also in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
According
to Reuters,the grant will be used to speed up delivery of emergency
supplies and provide support for healthcare workers in the three West
African countries worst affected by the Ebola crisis.
World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim said:
“The world needs to do much, much more to respond to the Ebola crisis in these three countries,”
Tim Evans, the head of the World Bank’s health group said:
“Containing
the Ebola epidemic has been hampered by the already fragile health
systems in the affected countries. In turn, this is putting recent
health gains in the region at serious risk,”
Ebola
has killed over 2600 people since it broke out in March with only 8 of
that number being in Nigeria while Liberia has been the worst hit.
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