World Bank pledges $100m more to fight Ebola outbreak

UNITED NATIONS - The World Bank on Thursday announced an additional $100 million of funding in a response to curtailing Ebola crisis so as to speed up deployment of foreign health workers to the three worst-affected countries in West Africa, a UN spokesman told reporters.

Current estimates by the United Nations indicate that about 5,000 international medical, training and support personnel are needed in the three countries over the coming months to respond to the Ebola outbreak, including 700 to 1,000 foreign health workers to treat patients in the Ebola treatment centers, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"The World Bank's additional financing will help set up a coordination hub in close cooperation with the three countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response to recruit, train and deploy qualified foreign health workers," said the spokesman.

The latest figures from the WHO report a total of 13,703 confirmed cases of Ebola virus infection and 4,922 deaths, mostly occurring in the three hardest hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.