The European Commission has allocated an additional €2 million to help respond to the worst Ebola outbreak on record, bringing the total amount of financial aid from the EU to help fight this epidemic in West Africa to €3.9 million.

"The level of contamination on the ground is extremely worrying and we need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost," said EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva. "I want to pay tribute to the health workers who strive around the clock to help the victims and prevent further contagion, often at serious risk to their own lives. The EU itself has deployed experts to the affected countries to help assess the situation and coordinate with the authorities. But we need a sustained effort from the international community to help West Africa deal with this menace".

This additional EU funding, which will be channelled through partner organisations, will help contain the spread of the epidemic and provide quick and immediate healthcare to the affected communities.

Partner organisations include the World Health Organisation (currently providing medical equipment and advice to the Ministries of Health and coordinating epidemiological surveillance), Medecins Sans Frontieres (supporting the clinical management of cases including the isolation of patients, tracing of suspected cases and psychological support), and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (supporting the National Red Cross societies to promote community awareness and preventative hygiene measures and providing safe burial of Ebola victims).

The Ebola epidemic is taking a devastating toll in the three affected countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. To date, 1200 cases and 670 deaths have been recorded, which include a number of health workers. A case has also been confirmed in Lagos (Nigeria), where a patient died on 26 July.

Risk of European countries contracting the virus is currently low, due to the isolated regions the virus can be found in, however the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is keeping the situation constantly under review and has issued several Rapid Risk Assessments providing guidance on how to proceed if suspected cases were detected in the EU. To date no cases have been detected among returning travellers in Europe.