RESOURCES TO FIGHT THE OUTBREAK, INCLUDING SUPPORT FOR REGIONAL RECOVERY
Since our last update in late 2014, nearly $2.0 billion were spent on building infrastructure and providing much needed resources to the affected regions of Africa. In effect, each of the involved countries received a substantial amount of public health funding that was dedicated to furnishing essential supplies and medications, PPE, infection prevention and control materials, health worker education, hazard pay and death benefits for health workers and volunteers, contact tracing and data management, transportation, as well as door-to-door public health outreach.[40]
The funding from key global institutions and networks has been instrumental in actively supporting the presence of health workers and other experts in the affected region, with over 1300 foreign medical workers deployed.[40] This large healthcare contingent included over 830 personnel working for the African Union Support to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa task force as well as 230 medical personnel from Cuba.[40]
In all, the World Bank has reported that at least $1.62 billion was devoted to fighting the current Ebola outbreak.[40] Of those funds, $260 million were assigned to Guinea, $385 million to Liberia, and $318 million to Sierra Leone, among other designated causes.[40] Substantial financial resources were dedicated to providing social safety net programs, reviving agriculture and addressing hunger-related issues in Ebola-affected locales.[40] In addition, $450 million was designated to providing financing for trade, investment, and employment in the outbreak-affected regions, with additional $250 million dedicated to a rapid response program that helps businesses in affected areas to continue their operations.[40] Finally, $200 million is earmarked for an Ebola recovery program that finances long- and medium-term projects during the post-outbreak period.[40]