- Philip Hammond tells foreign ministers to contribute more to £800m fundÂ
- Comes after PM said Europe needed to ‘start providing resources’ for fight
- Britain and the America are leading the global fight against the disease
- Royal Navy medical ship RFA Argus set sail for Sierra Leone last week
Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline
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Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond today warned European leaders to urgently stump up extra money to fight the Ebola crisis – as figures revealed the founders of Facebook and Microsoft alone had given almost as much as France.
Mr Hammond, in Luxembourg for a crisis summit on the epidemic sweeping West Africa, said world leaders had ‘a short window’ to beat the disease.
European Union governments are working to raise £800 million in aid by the end of the week to fight the deadly virus – with Britain and the US having so far picked up the bulk of the costs of fighting the outbreak.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond arrived at today’s European Union foreign affairs council summit in Luxembough to hammer out a rescue package to combat the Ebola outbreak
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg had contributed £15million – more money than India – while Microsoft founder Bill Gates had stumped £30million, which is more than half as much as the French government.
EU foreign ministers are holding a week of talks today to agree better measures to fight Ebola.
Mr Hammond said: ‘We’ve got a very short window to get on top of it and prevent the uncontrollable spread of the disease,’ British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. ‘We do need this billion-euro fund.’
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So far, the overall anti-Ebola total for the EU, including EU national contributions, stands now at nearly £395 million, with Britain contributing £125 million and Germany some £80 million.
The Netherlands also promised to send a frigate to West Africa to help, matching a similar contribution from Britain.
‘Money is very important, equipment is very important, staff is very important,’ said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The EU’s incoming Foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini and Mr Hammond spoke before the start of the summit today
The World Health Organization’s representative to the EU, Roberto Bertollini, was relieved to hear EU promises of action.
‘It’s time to act now … if we want to limit the amount of cases to an amount that is controllable,’ he said.
In Spain, officials said nursing assistant Teresa Romero now appears to have beaten Ebola but she won’t be considered virus-free until she is tested Tuesday for a second time.Â
She was among those treating a Spanish missionary who died of Ebola on Sept. 25.
‘The first good news is that the evolution of Teresa Romero is positive,’ said Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo. ‘The second is that the 15 others (linked to her) did not present any symptoms.’Â
Bystanders look at a health worker in protective clothing after he and his colleagues removed the body of a woman suspected of having died after contracting the Ebola virus in Bomi county, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Ebola has killed more than 2,000 people in her country and has brought it to ‘a standstill’
It comes after David Cameron warned last week that Ebola was ‘the biggest health problem facing our world in a generation’.
The Prime Minister warned other countries to ‘look to their responsibilities’ to help tackle the epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa amid growing anger at the lack of international support in the fight against the deadly virus.
Mr Cameron said Britain was ‘leading the way’ in providing assistance to the region and called for other countries to match the UK effort.
The Royal Navy medical ship RFA Argus, which has a fully-equipped 100-bed hospital on board, set sail from Cornwall to Sierra Leone last week to join the humanitarian effort and is due to reach the area by the end of the month .
But its facilities will not be used to treat Ebola patients themselves but will be there in case any of the UK military and civilian personnel working in the region become ill or are injured during the course of the operation.Â
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