Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged that he and his wife will donate $25 million to the battle against the Ebola virus.
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The disease, which has made headlines recently after fatally spreading in Africa and infecting at least two Americans (killing one), is at a "critical turning point" according to the young billionaire. He sees this as the time to step forward and stop its spread, rather than watching it continue.
"We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn't spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio," he wrote in his post on Facebook.
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It's generally considered that a well-developed country like the U.S. is not at serious risk from Ebola, with basic hygienic and medical practices limiting its likelihood to spread. Still, the handling of the original infected (and now deceased) man in Dallas, Texas did not inspire confidence, and the disease spread to one of the nurses. More than 8,400 cases worldwide have been reported since the last outbreak, with the recent spread in Africa taking thousands of lives. Zuckerberg is keen to add funds to the fight against the disease through donations to disease control centers.
"We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome. Grants like this directly help the frontline responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more."