In an effort to help stop the spreading of Ebola, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has donated $25 million to help fight the epidemic.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are giving $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help fight the Ebola epidemic, according to USA Today.
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the 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," he wrote. "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," he continued. "Grants like this directly help the front-line responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more."
Symptoms of Ebola start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches. Typically, vomiting, diarrhea and rash follow, along with decreased function of the liver and kidneys. Around this time, affected people may begin to bleed both within the body and externally, according to World Health Organization.
The donation will go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and in other spots in the world where Ebola is a threat, the foundation said Tuesday, according to USA Today.
