WASHINGTON — The Ebola death toll continues to rise in West African nations.
Out of about 9,000 cases, more than 4,500 people have died, according to the World Health Organization. That number will grow exponentially, and there could be 10,000 cases every week by December unless the outbreak is contained.
While donations for charitable organizations providing aid to fight Ebola are up, they’re coming in slower than other international crises.
The Washington Post reports the American Red Cross has raised about $2.9 million, but $2.8 million of that came from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which launched a #TackleEbola fundraising campaign online.
Doctors Without Borders has raised about $40 million worldwide — $7 million from American donors.
The number of volunteers willing to travel to West Africa is down, too. More than 1,500 International Medical Corps staff members were deployed to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, but the Post reports “just a few dozen qualified personnel have been able or willing to serve so far.”
Margaret Aguirre, head of Global Initiatives for International Medical Corps, says they are in desperate need of health workers on the ground.
“The recruitment efforts have been slow. Qualified personnel have to go through training, which is a full week,” she said. “We are scaling up very quickly to build as many Ebola treatment units as we can because not enough bed are available, especially in Monrovia, Liberia.”
She says they’ve raised about $3 million through private donations. “Compared to previous disasters, the private donation is lower. This has been a slow- moving crisis that evolved over time and become more serious. The loss of life, while tragic and awful, compared to something like the Haiti earthquake where 230,000 people were killed in virtually an instant
