With the latest death toll from the West Africa Ebola epidemic now at 887, the World Bank Group pledged on Monday as much as 200 million dollars in emergency funding to help Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone contain the spread of Ebola infections, help their communities cope with the economic impact of the crisis, and improve public health systems throughout West Africa.
West Africa's Ebola outbreak is out of control but it can be stopped, World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said on Friday at a meeting in Conakry, capital of Guinea.
Concerns have been expressed about the possibility of the current Ebola outbreak spreading globally after an infected airline passenger introduced the deadly virus to Nigeria. All outbreaks since 1976, when Ebola was first identified, have been confined to rural and forested areas in Africa, with the previous highest death toll being 280.