From Caribbean360

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Tuesday November 11, 2014 – Against the backdrop of thousands of deaths as Ebola continues its rampage in West Africa, some of the continent’s leading businessmen have established a crisis fund to help the countries worst hit by the deadly virus.

At a pledge meeting held over the weekend in Addis Ababa, the business executives raised US$28.5 million to deploy at least 1,000 health workers to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

According to Strive Masiyiwa, the chairman of telecommunications giant Econet Wireless, several companies had pledged money to the emergency fund, which will be managed by the African Development Bank.

At the end of the meeting, African Union Chairman Dlamini Zuma said the resources mobilised would be part of a longer term programme to deal with such outbreaks in the future.

The meeting took place as the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that Ebola was still on the rise in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The international charity nevertheless reported a reduction in the number of new cases in Liberia, the country with the heaviest death toll from the epidemic to date.

It is not known why the number of cases in Liberia has slowed, but Chris Stokes, head of MSF’s Ebola response, said the disease could “flare up” again, pointing to Guinea, where the number of cases is rising again despite two significant lulls.

Meanwhile, the international campaign group African Governance Initiative (AGI), while reporting that Ebola cases were rising “frighteningly quickly” in Sierra Leone, says it is not sure why cases are levelling off in Liberia.

The international organisation nevertheless said that “burial management” has improved significantly in both Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Liberia’s government has also been running an awareness campaign, advertising the best health practices and installing hand washing stations across the country.

UN Ebola coordinator Dr David Nabarro expressed cautious optimism about the apparent slowing of the rate of infection in Liberia, but cautioned that authorities “do not always have timely production of full data,” and warned that “reduction in the rate of infection does not mean that the outbreak is under control.”

And despite significant contributions from Cuba, the United States, Britain, China and other countries, the head of the UN mission charged with fighting Ebola says more help is urgently needed.

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