U.N. Ebola chief calls for final $1 billion to fight virus
By Ben Hirschler DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – United Nations agencies need a final $1 billion to fight West Africa's deadly Ebola epidemic as experts move to a new phase involving a massive detective operation to trace remaining cases, the U.N. Ebola chief said on Wednesday. David Nabarro estimated that an overall total of $4 billion in new money, equivalent to all the aid committed so far, was needed by relief agencies and the worst affected countries themselves to end the epidemic and "help these countries to get back to the economic trajectory they had". Nabarro, who heads the U.N. response, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the World Food Programme now needed the same amount again. Jeremy Farrar, director of Britain's Wellcome Trust international medical charity, said the epidemic would have "a long and bumpy tail".
