Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have donated $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fight the Ebola virus.
The Ebola virus has become an epidemic. It has infected about 8,400 people and killed 4,000, mostly in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The CDC estimates that 1.4 million people could be infected by January if the disease continues to spread unchecked.
In a message on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg notes that the spread of the Ebola virus is evolving very quickly, and its outbreak must be stopped before there is “a long-term global health crisis like HIV or polio.”
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Prompted by a commenter, Mark Zuckerberg explained his reasons for making the donation.
“One problem that exists today is that most people—including government leaders—don’t realize that we’re at a really critical juncture.”
“It’s easy to say that Ebola is still small compared to other diseases or that it’s mostly in other countries and won’t affect us, but if we don’t get it under control soon, then it will spread and become an epidemic that we’ll have to deal with for decades to come.”
“Grants like this are directly helping frontline workers do their heroic work,” Zuckerberg wrote. “These people are finding the ground to build care centers, train local workers, track Ebola cases, and more. We’re hopeful that this will help save lives.”
To learn more about the Ebola outbreak, donate, and help fight the deadly disease, visit cdcfoundation.org.
