A host of needs have been identified to help address the unprecedented Ebola epidemic in West Africa. One vital need is personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, masks and gowns, for use by public health workers and others involved in the on-the-ground response to the epidemic in the most-impacted countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. To help address this need, the CDC Foundation today announced a public-private partnership with Henry Schein, Inc. and UPS to provide and direct the transport of PPE to West Africa to aid in CDC’s response efforts.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is the deadliest in history, taking the lives of more than 4,000 people to date and infecting more than 8,400 individuals in the region. To provide flexible funding to help meet the most urgent on the ground needs, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan today made a grant of $25 million from their donor-advised fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation to the CDC Foundation.

The CDC Foundation today announced that the global medical technology company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) has contributed vital in-kind contributions, including infusion therapy and blood sampling devices that help reduce the probability of transmission of the Ebola virus to health care workers when taking blood samples from patients.

HCA, which operates 164 hospitals and 114 surgery centers in 20 states and England, and the CDC Foundation today announced a $1 million cash donation by HCA to the CDC Foundation to help support international Ebola epidemic response efforts involving the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and their work with partners on the ground in West Africa.

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation provided a transformational $9 million grant to the CDC Foundation. This grant will help advance the work of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local Ministries of Health to establish sustainable emergency operations centers in the most impacted countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Provides Vital Assistance and Supplies for Use in Impacted Countries

With the globalization of travel and trade, dangerous pathogens that arise anywhere in the world are just a plane ride away.