Funding to combat Ebola

The World Health Organization confirmed on Monday that the death toll of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has risen to 887, out of a total of 1,603 cases across four countries.

Three of the most recent suspected cases hail from Nigeria. Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu identified the second victim in Nigeria as a doctor, who treated deceased Ebola victim, Patrick Sawyer. Liberian-American Sawyer died on July 25, five days after flying into Nigeria from Liberia, one of the worst-affected countries.

A female American aid-worker who contracted the virus while treating patients in Liberia will return to a medical facility in Atlanta on Tuesday. Sixty-year-old Nancy Writebol was said to be in a "serious, but stable condition" by Christian missionary group SIM USA.

The first American Ebola victim to go home, Kent Brantley, was said to be slowly recovering after he was seen walking at the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta at the weekend.

International Emergency Funding

At the US-Africa leaders summit in Washington on Monday, international financial institutions prepared funding packages for Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The funding is part of a $100-million (roughly 75-million-euro) emergency response plan launched by the World Health Organization last week.

African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka told Reuters that his institution would immediately disburse 50 million dollars to the three worst-hit countries.

Bank officials said The World Bank was also set to announce funding for the three countries after approval from its board.

Sierra Leone's president, Ernest Bai Koroma and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf were absent from the US-Africa Leaders Summit, as they focused on controlling the Ebola outbreak.

Koroma appealed to the Sierra Leone population on Monday to fight together against the incurable disease, warning that "the very essence" of the nation was at stake.

Hundreds of troops were also deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia on Monday as part of an emergency isolation plan to minimize the spread of the virus and help to transport medical workers.

Liberian health authorities have ordered all deceased Ebola victims to be cremated after local communities opposed having the infected bodies nearby.

Spread from Guinea

Government leaders around the world are continuing to ready themselves for the worst outcome, amongst fears that the hemorrhagic virus could spread to other continents through air travel.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama said that his US government was "taking the appropriate precautions."

The current Ebola outbreak was first diagnosed in the remote south-eastern area of Nzerekore in Guinea in February; it has since spread to neighboring Liberia, Sierra Leone and most recently Nigeria.

In its worse outbreak since its discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976, the disease has been fatal in around 60 percent of cases. Past outbreaks had an even higher mortality rate.

ksb/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)