WASHINGTON (AP) — Nations gathered at a World Bank meeting in Washington are promising to send more aid quickly to African countries battling Ebola.
They’re also promising medical evacuations for health care responders who catch the virus.
The pledges follow impassioned pleas for help from the presidents of three West African countries hit hard by the epidemic that has killed more than 3,800 people.
Speaking to the meeting by videoconference, the president of Sierra Leone said his country needs millions of dollars, hundreds of doctors and thousands of nurses to fight what he called “a tragedy unforeseen in modern times.”
The presidents of Guinea and Liberia made similar calls for help.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called for a 20-fold surge in international aid to fight Ebola.
The World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, said more hospitals and health centers must be built quickly to ensure that West Africans can get the care they need in their own communities.
The United States and the United Nations say they’ll guarantee medical evacuations for health care workers responding to the crisis, in an effort to ensure that enough doctors and nurses are willing to risk their lives to help stop the disease.
%@AP Links
157-a-08-(Jim Yong Kim, president, World Bank Group, at news conference)-“not gonna work”-World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim says medicare care must be provided so doctors can treat people in their own communities. (9 Oct 2014)
< 155-a-10-(Jim Yong Kim, president, World Bank Group,, at news conference)-“surrounds an outbreak”-World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim says the SARS outbreak showed that much of the economic impact isn’t from the virus itself. ((longer version of cut used in wrap)) (9 Oct 2014) < Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
