Gates Foundation donates $50 million to fight Ebola

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $50 million to U.N. agencies fighting Ebola, the foundation announced Wednesday.

The foundation said in a statement that it would give "flexible funds" to U.N. agencies' work to stop the disease, which has killed more than 2,000 people in the recent outbreak. The foundation has already given $10 million out of that $50 million to fighting Ebola, including $5 million to the World Health Organization and $5 million to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

"We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease," Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann said in the statement. "We also want to accelerate the development of treatments, vaccines, and diagnostics that can help end this epidemic and prevent future outbreaks."

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