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Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma
inspects an ambulance, one of five donated by the U.S. to help combat the Ebola
virus in the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. (AP
Photo/Michael Duff)
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The United States donated
five ambulances Wednesday to help Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola, as the
West African government acknowledged it can take up to 24 hours to pick up
bodies in the spiraling crisis, AP reports.
More than 2,200 deaths
throughout the region have been attributed to Ebola amid the worst outbreak of
the disease in history. The sick have been using motorcycle taxis and other
public transport to get to hospitals, further increasing the risk of
transmitting the disease that kills about half its victims.
On Wednesday, Kathleen
FitzGibbon of the U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone handed President Ernest Bai
Koroma the keys to five ambulances. The U.S. has spent more than US$100 million
responding to the outbreak.
Meanwhile the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it will spend US$50 million —
on top of US$10 million already committed — to support emergency response to
the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, marking the group's largest donation to a
humanitarian effort.
"It became clear to
us over the last 7 to 10 days that the pace and scope of the epidemic was
increasing significantly," Chris Elias, president of global development
for the world's largest charitable foundation, told The Associated Press.
The Seattle-based
foundation said the money will go to the United Nations, the World Health
Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
international organizations involved in fighting transmission of the virus.
The money will be used to
purchase supplies and to develop vaccines, therapies and better diagnostic
tools. The foundation wants to help stop the outbreak as well as accelerate development
of treatments and improve prevention.
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