Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have donated $25 million to the Centers for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC) to support efforts to contain the Ebola virus.
The CDC Foundation, which received the donation from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, has been combating the outbreak of the fatal contagion in West Africa. The donation, made to the CDC Global Disaster Response Fund, reportedly came from the Facebook founder and his wife's fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
The 8-months-long Ebola epidemic has claimed over 4,000 lives. According to official estimates, about 8,000 people have been infected with the virus thus far. But many pundits say this figure is a gross underestimation of the actual extent of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the disease continues to spread rapidly. The CDC has warned that the number of infection in Liberia and Sierra Leone could climb to as many as 1.4 million by January if there isn't adequate intervention.
Mark Zuckerberg announced the donation with his wife on his Facebook wall. "Priscilla and I are donating $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help fight Ebola," he wrote.
"We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn't spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio. We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome," he added.
Meanwhile, CDC officials have acknowledged the donation from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. CDC Director Tom Frieden has noted that "The significant contribution from Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan will help us rapidly advance the fight against Ebola."
"The most important step we can take is to stop Ebola at its source. The sooner the world comes together to help West Africa, the safer we all will be," he said.
Although Mark Zuckerberg's wife has remained out of the spotlight, the couple have been involved in many charity projects. Earlier in the year, they were named the most generous philanthropists in 2013 after donating 18 million Facebook shares valued at about $970 million to a non-profit organization.
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