GENEVA
Nearly $1 billion is needed to tackle the ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organization has said, as the number of cases rose to nearly 5,000.
The U.N. and its humanitarian partners made the announcement on Tuesday at the UN offices in Geneva.
Dr. David Nabarro, UN System Senior Coordinator for Ebola, said: "The ebola crisis is unprecedented.
"It requires an exceptional, international response to address both the health crisis and the broader societal, economic and political threats to the countries affected."
As the outbreak continued to accelerate with nearly 5,000 people infected, the WHO warned that up to 60-70 per cent of them were not expected to survive.
'Worst-ever outbreak'
Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General in the World Health Organization, said the death toll had risen to 2,461 people alone in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Aylward said: "By my estimation, the amount which we requested was around $100 million months ago, now it is $1 billion.
"So, our appeal has gone up 10 times in months. The reason for that is the outbreak over the past months doubled in size."
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, said: "We will do everything we can to support national governments, UN agencies, NGOs and other partners as they work on healthcare, food security, sanitation and protection issues."
The WHO indicated that, compared to all previous ebola outbreaks combined, the West African outbreak was the worst to date as more than 22 million people were living in ebola-affected areas.
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