“The epidemic ofEbola is at a critical juncture. The virus has infected 8,400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and some predict that it could infect 1 million people or even more within several months if nothing is done to combat it”, explained Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.
An easy way to donate
Following this statement, the president and his wife announced that they were offering $25 million to the American Centers for Disease Research (CDC) in Atlanta (USA) to help them fight the epidemic which is still raging in West Africa.
And that he was going to use Facebook to promote the actions of three humanitarian organizations, “International Medical Corps”, Save the Children and the Red Cross and to mobilize Internet users to make donations.
Without a solution, the Ebola epidemic could become a long-term global health crisis. “With these humanitarian associations, and by facilitating donations, we can all help fight this disease” recalls Facebook in a press release.
Ebola: an uncontained epidemic
The mortality rate of patients affected by the virus Ebola would reach 70%, according to forecasts by the World Health Organization. And the spread of the disease in West Africa still does not seem to be contained.
The epidemic is spreading faster than ever. And WHO estimates are not reassuring. “The Ebola epidemic could cause 5,000 to 10,000 new cases per week in West Africa in December,” said Bruce Aylward, Deputy Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the occasion of the Security Council devoted to the spread of this disease.
And, according to estimates by the American Centers for Disease Research (CDC), between 550,000 and 1.4 million patients would be affected by the fever. Ebola in January 2015. The high range (1.4 million cases) implies that the number of cases recorded so far (5,864 according to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization) would be significantly underestimated. It is indeed probable, according to the American health authorities, that 2.5 times more people have already been affected by the disease.
