The unprecedented Ebola epidemic in West Africa took the lives of more than 11,300 of the 28,600 people infected with the disease. The epidemic represented not just a problem for West Africa, but for the world. The world needed to respond, and it did—including donors who supported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) response through the CDC Foundation’s Global Disaster Response Fund.
CDC ramped up its Ebola response in early July 2014, and overall the agency’s staff completed more than 3,000 deployments to West Africa (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), the United States and other affected countries. CDC staff members provided logistics, staffing, communication, analytics, management and other support functions. Importantly, CDC staff set up systems to conduct and participated in surveillance, contact tracing, database management and health education.
The CDC Foundation assisted CDC by providing critical assistance and supplies through donations to the Foundation’s Emergency Response Fund, which enabled CDC staff to respond quickly to changing circumstances and needs. The CDC Foundation worked with donors to provide much-needed supplies and equipment for use on the ground in West Africa, such as infection control tools, vehicles and motorcycles, hiring of locally employed staff, exit screening tools and supplies at airports such as thermal scanners to detect fever.
More specifically, individuals and organizations supported a wide variety of efforts, such as:
- computers equipped with software and printers for use in the field by CDC and in-country staff;
- personal protective equipment and thermal scanning thermometers for use by airport screeners in West Africa;
- health worker training and public health communication in the region; and
- the establishment and operation of sustainable emergency operations centers in the most impacted countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,
- and much more.
A CDC Foundation video highlights the tremendous difference donors made in CDC’s Ebola response, and the links below highlight announcements, articles and blogs detailing how donor support advanced CDC’s efforts to defeat Ebola.
Announcements from the CDC Foundation
Taiwan Provides $1 Million Donation to CDC Foundation for Ebola Response Effort | 12.4.2014
Henry Schein and UPS Join with CDC Foundation To Help CDC Combat Ebola Epidemic | 10.15.2014
$25 Million Donation from Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan for Ebola Response | 10.14.2014
In-kind Contributions to Help Ensure Health Care Worker Safety in West Africa | 10.2.2014
HCA Gives $1 Million in Aid for Ebola Response to CDC Foundation | 9.25.2014
$9 Million Grant from Paul G. Allen Family Foundation for West Africa Ebola Response | 9.11.2014
RWJF Million Dollar Grant to Advance CDC's Response to West African Ebola Outbreak | 8.25.2014
Announcements from Our Donors
ExxonMobil Donates $250,000 to Support Ebola Response Efforts in Nigeria | 9.26.2014
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Commits $50 Million to Ebola Emergency Response | 9.10.2014
Alcoa Foundation awards $80K to CDC Foundation to Support Healthcare Efforts in Guinea | 8.8.2014
Feature Stories from CDC's Center for Global Health
Improving Infection Prevention and Control in Sierra Leone
CDC Health Promotion Team Led the Way for Effective Communication to Fight Ebola
CDC and CDC Foundation Supported Journalists to Fight Ebola in Sierra Leone