Should Bill Gates Write a Big Check to Stop Ebola?

The price tag for stopping Ebola is now $600 million. At least that’s how much United Nations officials estimate it would cost to halt the deadly epidemic still sweeping across West Africa. A month ago, the figure was just over $70 million. On Sept. 2, Tom Friedan of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the window to contain the outbreak is closing.

Governments typically come to the rescue in these kinds of crises, and American and European officials announced this week they would commit $250 million to fight Ebola. But what about Bill Gates? The Microsoft co-founder and world’s richest man has already spent billions to combat such deadly diseases as malaria and polio, especially in Africa. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he has already given $1 million to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF last month to fight Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. But with a personal net worth of $85.7 billion (according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index), he could afford more. Through the foundation, he’s developed a deep network of partners and projects that bring together the public and private sector. He even chose a doctor, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, to take over as chief executive of the foundation this past May.