WASHINGTON, November 7 (RIA Novosti) – Facebook is stepping up its efforts to fight Ebola by adding a donate button on its website for users to easily give to charities fighting the virus in West Africa.
"At Facebook, we want to make sure that we do our part to help in the fight against Ebola," co-founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg said in a video statement Thursday.
In addition to the donate button that will soon be seen on Facebook pages around the world, the company has also committed to send mobile satellite communication terminals for medical and aid workers in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia to allow them to communicate better on the ground.
Facebook has also partnered with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a United Nations' humanitarian group, to share information on Ebola symptoms and treatment with people in Ebola-hit West African countries on Facebook.
"This is an important moment in this fight and I'm optimistic that together, the Facebook community can help stop Ebola," Zukerberg said, adding that the changes on the website are to come "over the next week".
Facebook's Ebola response commitment was announced a day after US President Barack Obama said that he would ask Congress for $6.2 billion in additional funding to fight the disease in West Africa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that Ebola has claimed some 4,818 lives since the start of the current outbreak in February. The outbreak began in Guinea and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal, however, Senegal and Nigeria have recently been declared free of Ebola by the WHO. Several cases of the disease have also been registered outside of West Africa, including the United States.
