Cash crunch hits Ebola fight; India among top 5 donors

India is among the top five contributors to the United Nations Ebola response with a contribution of $12.5 million (Rs 76 crore), according to a fact sheet released by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Here’s how much others contributed to the UN Ebola response:

United States - $113.8 million (Rs 695 crore) 

European Union ($55.5 million / Rs 339 crore) 

Canada ($31.9 million / almost Rs 195 crore) 

Netherlands ($21 million / Rs 128 crore).

At a joint news conference with his British counterpart Philip Hammond, Kerry lamented that not many nations have contributed to this global effort to fight the deadly disease.

The UN has identified $1 billion (Rs 6,105 crore) in urgent needs. 

"The World Bank has put in 22

per cent. The USA has put in 11 per cent. Private sector, 10 per cent," he said.

The fact sheet presented by him showed that India has contributed a little over one per cent to this.

"The fact is more countries can and must step up in order to make their contributions felt, and this chart tells the story. Those are not enough countries to make the difference to be able to deal with this crisis," he said in his presentation.

The UN, he said, is falling short of $300 million (Rs 1832 crore).



Experts say Ebola is transmitted by close contact with the bodily fluids of a person who is showing symptoms of infection such as fever, aches, vomiting and diarrhea, or who has recently died of the hemorrhagic virus.

The world's largest outbreak of Ebola has killed 3,865 people out of 8,033 infected so far this year, according to the WHO's latest count.