Less Than Half Of Ebola Cash Reaches Victims

Just 40% of the $2.9bn (£1.9bn) pledged to fight West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has actually reached the affected region, a study has revealed.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs , which tracked international donations, said just $1.09bn (£720m) had reached the worst-hit countries by the end of 2014.

It also found that global agencies had failed to reliably estimate the amount of money needed.

More than 8,800 people have died since the worst Ebola epidemic in history began last year, devastating already weak health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Karen Grepin, a global health policy expert at New York University who led the study published in the British Medical Journal, said: “These delays … may have contributed to the spread of the virus and could have increased the financial needs.”

The epidemic’s spread now appears to be slowing, especially in Liberia which now has just five cases.

Guinea first informed the World Health Organisation of a “rapidly evolving outbreak” of Ebola last March, but the first major international appeal was not until August, when around $71m (£47m) was asked for.

By mid-September 2014, the UN estimated $1bn (£660m) would be needed, only to raise that in November to an estimated $1.5bn (£990m).

Ms Grepin said: “Clearly, international leaders have found it challenging to estimate the financial requirements to tackle this rapidly spreading outbreak.

“The problem has not been the generosity of donors but that the resources have not been deployed rapidly enough.”

UN Ebola chief David Nabarro said last month a further $4bn (£2.64bn) was needed by relief agencies and authorities in the worst affected countries to end the epidemic.

Less Than Half Of Ebola Cash Reaches Victims