Earlier this week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $50 million dollars, which will be made available to United Nations agencies and other international organizations that are working in the fight against the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Sue Desmond-Hellman, chief executive officer of the Gates Foundation , says that they will be working with the said organizations and that they are currently finding ways to most effectively make use of the funds which will be donated to the cause of putting an end to the outbreak that has already taken so much from the peoples in West Africa.
As of the moment, what the foundation confirms is that the funds will mostly be used to fund the necessary purchases for services and supplies that will mobilize even more projects at different levels to hasten the medical action thGates Foundation Pledged $50 Million in the Fight Against Ebola at is currently being done to end the outbreak.
Desmond-Hellman says the topmost priority of the foundation include the acceleration in the research and development of treatments, vaccines and diagnostics. On top of being used in the current endeavors against the outbreak, the foundation expresses their hopes that the pledged funds will go as far as the development of preventive measures.
As of writing, the rate of fatality is currently at an alarming 53% all over West Africa. In Guinea the fatality rate is currently at 64% while Sierra Leone has it at 39%.
With this alarming rate, the speed in the development of preventive measures as well as diagnostic measures and even for treatment proper, is of great importance and urgency.
World Health Organization's Director of Strategy Christopher Dye says that they are currently working on systems to compile and analyze data at the patient level. This, according to Dye, is essential in the development of the much needed systems for putting the outbreak under control.